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[Towertalk] Pinning Mast to Rotator

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [Towertalk] Pinning Mast to Rotator
From: kq2m@earthlink.net (Robert Shohet)
Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 13:06:12 -0400
Hi Bruce,

The rotator would have broken, and/or the rotator/antenna clamp, and/or the
u-bolts and who knows
what else.   Specific failures can't always be known in advance, nor the
unintended
consequences of those failures, like if something breaks (instead of slips),
does the broken item(s)
cause the damage of  something else that would not have been affected
otherwise and does that then
set up a potential chain reaction of other disasters?

I am pretty certain that if you HAD pinned the mast to the rotator, you
would now be wondering
how much less damage would have occurred if you did not.  Possible
inconvenience is much better
than almost sure disaster.

73 and GL with your repairs!

Bob KQ2M


Had the mast been pinned to the rotator when Lili
> struck, the yield point likely would not have been the mast-to-rotator
> connection.  With a large enough moment, I wonder what would have yielded.
> The top section of my Rohn 45 tower?  The U-bolts on the rotator plate?
The
> rotator itself?  Whatever would have been forced to yield, I'm certain it
> would have been more time-consuming to fix, and obviously more expensive,
> than repositioning the mast in the rotator.  On the other hand, maybe it
> would be that nothing would have yielded, and now I'd have one less repair
> item on my to-do list.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Bruce, ZF2NT
> Little Cayman Island
>




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