[CQ-Contest] Pin the TH7 on the tower

[Scott Robbins]

I am hoping that Dean Straw or someone else knowledgeable will read this
message and offer some sage advice on a slight dilemma I have about a
TH7DX tribander and some other hardware I am going to put up sometime
in the near future.  

The TH7 is going to be placed on an old Telrex Big Bertha rotatable
tower.  The Telrex tower uses antenna mounting plates that are flat,
rectangular and have bolt holes that are 9/16" in outer diameter 16 
inches (approx) horizontally apart.  There are four holes total on 
each mounting plate, one near each corner.  The vertical distance
between holes is roughly eight inches. 

There were U brackets that held (and still hold one) very large Telrex
3.5" OD boom monobanders to the tower.  I have a pair of brackets, but
they are far too large for the 2" OD TH7 boom.  The U brackets have a
flat area on each side with a 3.5" ID half circle in the middle.

You've got the gist of it:  I am trying to figure out how I am going to
pin the TH7 to the tower antenna mounting plate.  The boom to mast 
hardware, I believe, is not usable in this scenario for any purpose I
can ascertain. 

These are the two options I have thought of:  1) Ditch the boom to mast
hardware, and drill two holes through the boom, and pin it to the
mounting plate with two 9/16" dia. steel bolts through the boom to the 
plate, using a pair of the horizontal holes on the tower antenna mounting
plate.   2) Pin the boom to the bottom of each of the brackets by
drilling holes through them, then attach the brackets to the tower
plate with four bolts. 

Option 2, I sense, is the less stable version of the two as I will
weaken the brackets by drilling them.  The boom on the TH7 seems pretty
stout and I certainly think two 9/16" bolts will keep it up there (as
compared to the smaller bolts used in the stock boom to mast hardware).

Thanks for your thoughts in advance, 

Scott Robbins, W4PA 


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