Thanks to all for the many helpful and creative ideas on this. Turns out I
was trying to overengineer this thing. The Yaesu rotators (this is my first
Yaesu, but probably not my last - I've had it with HyGain) have a completely
removable clamshell, so all I have to do is give myself a fraction of an
inch of slack at the bottom of the mast during installation and the whole
unit will slide out sideways after removing four bolts (plus the bolt
through the mast and clamshell). I've already drilled the Yaesu-specified 9
mm "anti-slip" hole in the bottom of the mast at the proper distance to keep
the mast about 3/16" away from bottoming out in the clamshell. Saturday, I
will deliver the 23' mast to the galvanizers (a five hour round trip with
the trailer), who were fairly reasonable at $100, or $140 if they have to
blast millscale off. These guys have an serious hot dip setup - one of their
tanks is 6' x 7' x 56', believe it or not. For hot dip galvanizing street
light poles, I guess. Wonder how many BTU's it takes to keep the zinc melted
in that one! Anyway, another milestone in the 45G project is nearly reached.
73, Jerry W5KP
List Sponsor: Are you thinking about installing a tower this summer? Call us
for information on our fabulous Trylon Titan self-supporting towers - up to
96-feet for less than $2000! at 888-833-3104 <A
HREF="http://www.ChampionRadio.com";>
www.ChampionRadio.com</A>
-----
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/towertalk
Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-towertalk@contesting.com
|