Pole Hardware, Guy Ancbors

[Pat Barthelow]

          We, at the Marina Amateur Radio Contest Station have
benefited greatly again, in inheriting a large amount of power
company pole equipment.  This was found in an abandoned
"boneyard" lot, formerly used by the Government run "utility"
company that used to run the power system at Ft. Ord.  
          I have looked at some of the treasure, and find, among other
things, some odd looking assemblys of metal, that appear to be
some sort of expandable (in diameter) anchors for attachment to guy
anchors (also plentiful at the boneyard)  They look a bit like a
miniature satallite dish, and are approx 12" diameter, and where on
the dish, there are thin arms supporting the LNA, on these, similar
arms support a cast metal fitting that has hinged mounts to the
support arms.  A hole at the center of the "dish" seems to
accomodate a rod, and it looks like compressive force between the
4 hinged arms above the dish, and the bottom of the dish, will cause
the dish (which is segmented) to slide out, creating a much larger
diameter anchor.  Anyone familiar with these?   How do you expand
these to a larger diameter, once they are attached to the end of a
guy anchor, at the bottom of a deep 12" diameter hole?  Know 
where I can get a Lineman's reference of pole hardware?  We have
(literally) tons of galvanized hardware, brackets, guy strand, anchor
fittings,  L shaped lag bolts (BIG ones) for tower anchors, Insulators,
(all kinds), thru bolts, plates for pole attachments, poles, etc.  We
can use these to improve/rehab our old antenna farm up the hill,
consisting of 70 ft poles, scattered around the old MARS station. 
Most are un guyed, and need to be guyed to support a future farm
of large wire yagis.
          Another question; Many of the insulators might be used in
antenna support applications, and I wonder if there are any adverse
effects of a ceramic insulator designed for 60 Hz power, when used
around RF?  Are they lossy?  The bell insulators look like a great
capacitor at RF, with metal fittings bonded either side of the ceramic
disk.
          By the way, any of you visiting the Monterey Peninsula, are
invited to visit our station... contact me via internet, or check in to
the local 146.97 repeater (-) split, PL 94.8 to find me or the site. In
the meantime the rest of the family can enjoy the Aquarium,
Cannery Row, etc... Once we are better setup with antennas,
contester/DXer types will be encouragedto use the station for
contesting....
See you in the (VK0IR) Pileups...
73, de Pat, AA6EG  aa6eg@tmx.com

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