Hi Pete,
> I plan to go over to totally non-conductive guys for the top set, and move
> my insulators down to the middle set. Question is, is Phillystran the
> only practical option? A few years ago, some guys in PVRC bought a large
> quantity of Polygon(?) fibreglass guy rod, which I understand is only
> about 1/3 of the cost of Philly, but as I recall there were minimum
> quantity and handling issues. Can anyone enlighten me on this option?
First, I know a lot of other people use the polygon rod. So this is
just my perspective.
I called polygon a few weeks ago to order some rod.
First thing that bothered me, was the person on the phone knew
very little about using this rod for guylines. For example, when I
asked for a UV resistant grade she said "they all are". When I
asked what the typical life was, she didn't know. When I asked
what the safe rated working load was, she had no idea.
Second thing that bothered me was they quoted me one price (it
was around 21 cents I think), and later raised the price to 33 cents
on the actual confirmation.
The final straw was delivery. They told me under four weeks, but
the confirmation said 7-8 weeks.
It might be good stuff, but when someone doesn't seem to know the
price, delivery time, and other product details I get all kinds of
warning flags in my mind.
A total-steel-cable installation costs $6 per insulator (including
grips) plus 10 cents per foot. Since the average spacing I use is
about 40 feet, it generally totals less than 30 cents a foot.
Dollar per dollar it wound up being about the same price as
something I know works, lasts for years, and is readily available.
With the only difference being extra labor, I decided to just use
insulators, preforms, and 1/4 inch EHS strand as usual.
> Europe, it seems as if just about any 2" steel tubing will do for a mount,
> simply rotating the boom-to-mast clamp on the C-3 to attach to a
> horizontal tube. If this is how it's often done, the question is how best
> to attach the tube to the tower. Would it work to U-bolt it to one leg
> and one horizontal tower rung, or should I plan on something like an
> accessory shelf, u-bolted to all three legs, with the tube in turn
> u-bolted to the plate?
I plan on using crossover plates bolted to two legs with two u-bolts
per leg to support the medium size yagis on a rotating tower.
73, Tom W8JI
w8ji@contesting.com
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