Topband: Building a practical vertical from Al tubing - Thanks!

[Paul DeWitte K9OT]

Thomas I know that you have receieved a lot of response to your vertical
question. Here is one more for what it is worth.

K4TMC Henry sells surplus military aluminum mast sections. They are 4 foot
long with about a 4 inch smaller sleeve to slip into the next section. So
they are essentially 3 foot 8 inches or so after putting them together.

I have a full size 80m vertical made of these mast sections. They are about
1 and 3 fourth inches in dia.

At each coupling I drill 3 holes in a triangle configuration and put in
stainless steel screws to ensure contact between each section. He also has
guy rings available that fit between sections.

For guying I use plastic baler twine. I buy big square hay bales (800
lbs)for my sheep and this twine works very well. It does not streach and
stands the weather OK.

To put up the ant, I start with about 30 feet that is already put together
and guy it loose so that I can lift up the vert from the bottom off of the
ground. I do this in several steps putting it on something a little higher
each time until it is high enough to insert another section at the bottom.
Then the process starts over with the next section.

Since I have thousands of feet of this twine I have guyed it every 10 feet.
You probably could go to 15 feet but I think safe is better than sorry and
fixing it later on.  These mast sections would be strong enough to support
top loading wires as long as they were not too heavy of wire. They would
also serve as the top guys.

Good luck on what ever you choose

73 Paul K9OT



-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.15/223 - Release Date: 1/6/06