[TowerTalk] the Flex disc dillemma

[Pete Smith]

At 10:51 AM 2/19/00 -0800, W4EF wrote:
>
>Fred,
>
>Yes, you are correct. In either case, whether you use the 
>flex disc method, or the long mast method, all you are trying
>to do is add a spring between the array's inertia, and the 
>rotator. The long mast method will work fine for big HF array's
>with reasonably beamwidths. For big VHF/UHF arrays with narrow
>beamwidths, one would have to take great care that there wasn't 
>excessive "slop" in the mast joints, else you might have some 
>pointing accuracy problems. 

I wonder if this is really true -- my impression was that part of the
energy is dissipated as heat in the rubber doughnut, and that its
characteristics do more than just accept a peak load and then feed it back
quickly.  Perhaps an ME could comment? 


73, Pete Smith N4ZR
n4zr@contesting.com 

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