[TowerTalk] Yagis and Rivets

[Dave D'Epagnier]

I dunno. I tried to take a closer look at it this morning on my way to work,
but we got hit with a big snow storm last night and my antenna (sitting on
saw horses outside) was covered with snow and some ice. I'll look more
closely at it when I get a chance.

I did get an email from Natan at F12. He's concerned about it and wants me
to post this on the Force 12 reflector to see if any of those guys have had
a similar problem.

The problem I have is that the rivets are SLIGHTLY loose. Loose enough so
that I can rotate and wiggle one element section a bit with respect to its
mate. It's pretty subtle and not like the elements are about to come apart
or anything that drastic.

--Dave
K0QE

	----------
	From:  Michael Tope [SMTP:W4EF@pacbell.net]
	Sent:  Thursday, March 16, 2000 5:31 AM
	To:  towertalk; 'Dave D'Epagnier'
	Subject:  RE: [TowerTalk] Yagis and Rivets


	Dave,

	Have you been able to indentify where the deformation took
	place? Are the rivets elongated, have the holes in the 
	tubing been reamed out by the rivet, or have the rivet heads
	deformed? Has the tubing flattened out at all?

	Mike, W4EF................

	----------
	From: 	Dave D'Epagnier[SMTP:DDEpagnier@compuserve.com]
	Sent: 	Wednesday, March 15, 2000 2:56 PM
	To: 	towertalk
	Subject: 	[TowerTalk] Yagis and Rivets


	Hello,
	I'm just about to finally put back up my C3-S. It's been up for
about a
	year and a half and worked well all that time - no problems. I
thought I'd
	maybe redo the joints with some silicone vacuum grease and kind of
spruce
	it up a bit before it was put back into commision. One thing noticed
on my
	half disassembled antenna though is that ALL OF THE RIVETS ARE
LOOSE!
	Sorry, don't mean to shout  but  this is surprising. It looks to
like every
	one of those once very sturdy rivets are loose. I can wiggle every
element
	section with respect to its mate and have to wonder how good the rf
	connection is between them. And I thought rivets were the best and
would
	never be a problem.They were installed correctly. I'm wondering if
aluminum
	rivets are simply wimpy. Maybe steel rivets would hold much stronger
and
	longer, and even though they may cause local corrosion, the overall
	connection might last longer with steel. Has anyone else experienced
this?
	How did you deal with it?

	--Dave
	K0QE

	--
	FAQ on WWW:
http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
	Submissions:              towertalk@contesting.com
	Administrative requests:  towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
	Problems:                 owner-towertalk@contesting.com
	Search:                   http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search.htm


	--
	FAQ on WWW:
http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
	Submissions:              towertalk@contesting.com
	Administrative requests:  towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
	Problems:                 owner-towertalk@contesting.com
	Search:                   http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search.htm

--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
Submissions:              towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests:  towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-towertalk@contesting.com
Search:                   http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search.htm