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[TowerTalk] Pinning masts

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Pinning masts
From: n4zr@contesting.com (Pete Smith)
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 08:55:31 -0400
At 08:43 PM 9/6/1999 -0400, W2XX wrote:
>
>Greetings:
>
>It is not advisable to pin the mast to the rotor.  In fact, many
>manufacturers of rotors tell you that if you do pin the mast
>in the rotor, you'll void their warranty.

But Yaesu tells you to do it.

>
>If you feel you need the additional "security," then a better idea
>is to pin the antenna's to the mast and leave the mast free in
>the rotor.  This way, if it does spin under a load, it is easier to spin 
>the mast back to where it should be than to spin an individual antenna
>somewhere up the mast.
>
>I never pin both the antennas and the mast...if you do and a big
>blow comes along, you have practically guaranteed that *something*
>will break.

For whatever anecdotes are worth, I'm turning a Force 12 C-3/Short 40
combination with a pinned G-1000SDX, and have not had any signs of trouble
in 3+ years, including some pretty fierce winds.  Since the Yaesu design is
not a worm gear drive, and the brake drum is a very small device without
the wedging design of the T2X-style, my hunch is that in a real pinch the
brake drum will simply slip, at least until things hit the stop at one end
or the other of rotation.  Maybe they assume that in most cases the antenna
will windmill into equilibrium before that occurs. 


73,  Pete N4ZR
Sometimes a tower is just a tower

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