At 19:13 1/25/2003 -0700, Peter Larsen wrote:
> >It shows no signs of being near "end of service life" -
> >whatever that is.
>
>As with any beam the aluminum will fatigue with age.
>When your beam starts raining down bits of elements
>it is time to go.
Of course nothing lasts forever. But how long does it take for well built
aluminum beams to start
falling apart from age & fatigue? I've got 30+ yrs on my top TH6/7 and no
elements or pieces have fallen off. When the pieces start falling then I
guess I'll worry. But how long might that be?
Many beams have pieces fall off that are much newer than TH6's. There is
more to this than age fatigue of the aluminum such as the overall antenna
construction, design, assembly, etc.
73 Phil NA4M
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Phil Duff NA4M na4m@arrl.net Georgetown, Texas
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