> > The mount is mounted to the hatch lip edge about halfway
> down the side
> > of the hatch. The top of the tubular section of the 120 is
> a little
> > above the
>
> Isn't that a lot of load on that edge at expressway cruising speeds?
>
I was worried about that when I installed it and thought about a fishing
line guy, but it seemed stable when I moved the antenna by hand. I've kept
a close eye on it and check it at least once a week to see if there's any
warping of the sheetmetal or loosening of mount screws and pivot joints, but
so far, nothing.
The mount includes a rectangular steel strip about 1/8" thick to be placed
between the sheetmetal/body and the mount screws. I believe that gives
added strength to the attachment point. Also, I think a lot of the wind
effects while in motion are minimized by most of the antenna body being
below and behind the car body. A rooftop mounted ATAS antenna might need
guys.
When I first installed the old ATAS-100 (with my old FT-100) on my old
Saturn SC2 coupe trunk deck edge, the corona ball had caught the edge of
one of the garage door sections as I was backing out one day. It popped
free but not until the antenna had pivoted forward in the vertical pivot
joint. I loosened it with the allen wrench, set the antenna back to
vertical, re-tightened it and was good to go; no damage to the antenna. As
a 'temporary fix' I put duct tape at the leading and trailing edges of the
garge door sections to preclude the corona ball hanging up on any more door
section edges. That fixed that. I was going to install plywood 'ramps',
but the duct tape works great.
73,
Dale, kg5u
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