I took a C3S down to Mexico a few years ago for a weekend
expedition. The folks at Force-12 gave me a great tip on
how to avoid riveting hundreds of holes, for a few day
trip. This might be helpful if you want to pre-tune your
antenna before committing to permanent connections. This
is also useful to judge if your antenna has been drilled
properly at the factory.
Follow the directions to assemble the antenna. Place a rivet
in each hole as directed. Then use electrical tape to
secure the rivet. (I wrapped the tape around each joint,
puncturing the tape with the rivet end.)
That's it! -- I assembled a complete C3S, and mounted it
on a roof tower for 3 days in Mexico using this technique.
To disassemble, just remove the tape, rivet, and unjoin
the connection. I did not find any questionable connections
during disassembly of the actual antenna -- the rivets
lock the tubing together, and the tape secures the rivets
in place. It may look funny, but it works!
For a temporary installation such as this, I would not add
Penetrox. If this was a trial assembly for a permanent
installation, I would apply an appropriate joint chemical
so that the only work remaining would be to fasten rivets.
I had good success with the C3S -- it seems like a good
quality and effective product. I did not have to drill
any holes to achieve advertised SWR curves, although I did
have to extend the 10M elements to their maximum position.
73, Dave AG8L/VE2
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