On 1/8/2011 7:48 PM, Rick - NJ0IP / DJ0IP wrote:
> Filling your tubing with foam is the biggest nonsense I've ever heard.
Oh... come now... not the biggest....? ! ?
SOMETHING else must take the cake... ;-)
> Jim, it took me several years to figure out something that should be
> obvious.
> "If something is worth doing, it's worth doing right."
> After watching a few flimsy antennas break and fall down I developed the
> following strategy:
UNDERSTOOD ! My wife calls me "Mr Overkill" because
I tend to overbuild everything. Good tools are worth good
money. Good results usually come from good effort.
That big bag of snakes is often disguised as an ever-loving
blue-eyed bargain.
> Actually it wasn't the beam, it was the Spiderbeam 60' vertical dipole. She
> doesn't understand the difference.
I am the luckiest guy in town. My wife does a pretty good
job of listening to me rage about the hobby, and is supportive
of all my antenna projects. The only constraint she has
imposed is that I cannot put any holes in the roof. She
even helps me put the antennas up (provided I stay within
her approx 1 hour attention span... if it takes more than an
hour, she tends to wander off leaving me to finish on my own. )
It could be worse.
> Not much you can do when an entire tree falls down and hits your pole!
> Murphy is alive and well.
1) Some forces are bigger than we are.
2) Understood. Murphy lives with me when he is
not out bothering you other guys.
> As I said in an earlier post, because it was telescoping fiberglass, it only
> cost me about $30 to repair, and it was again straight as an arrow.
A fiberglass solution is now the leading contender.
I have two 30-foot fiberglass poles similar to the
Spiderbeam type poles you like supporting a
medium aperture Wellbrook active loop receiving
antenna and they hardly sway in the wind.
Now, I am thinking those Spiderbeam poles (using
only 17 +/- feet thereof) and thick gauge stranded
wire (either inside or attached outside the poles) for
the radiator. My local friend suggested a way to
terminate the radiator with a short stinger that can be
adjusted for tuning for resonance and low SWR, etc.
This notion seems more workable than his foam
dampening idea. (Parenthetically, I think he derives
a certain amount of vicarious pleasure in helping me
with my antenna projects... his XYL won't let him have
any outdoor antennas... so I think he has fun pitching
in to build mine... which is OK by me. )
The good news is I have the 40-6 meter OCF dipole and
10 meter aluminum dipole ready to deploy -- just waiting
for a really heavy snowfall or ice storm so I can install them
in sufficiently inclement weather to assure they work well.
;-)
Thanks loads for your input !
================= James -K8JHR ====================
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