[TowerTalk] Pop Rivets

[Hugh Phillips]

Greetings,

I have a 620/340 Force 12. It has been up about 2 years. I had a boom to
mast plate go bad, So I pulled it down and took a look at the entire
antenna. The boom is riveted at some of the boom joints. I would say
about 75% of the boom rivets had popped the heads off of the rivets. The
40 meter element rivets were ok. However about 25% of the elements on
the 20 had worked loose. The entire antenna was assembled with Noa-lox.
Richard, K8ZTT has the same antenna and lives about 3 miles away. His
boom has lost almost all of the rivets. We have used BOLTS in place of
the rivets on the boom. We purchased a HYDRAULIC Pop rivet gun. We use
Aluminum rivets with STEEL shanks (the pull shaft), the combination of
the HYDRAULIC rivet tool and the heavier duty rivets has done the job of
of solving the rivet problem. We have a nice tight antenna now.
Richard, K8ZTT lives on top of a hill with much more wind than I.
However, my antenna was almost as bad as his. I do not live in a high
wind area, as he does.

73, Hugh
K7XM

-- 
Living a Champagne life on a Beer budget!
Elizabeth, Co., 35 miles SE of Denver @ 63ØØ feet
ex: WN6KCX, WA6KCX, KB6YU, KS6O, KR7Y,
    (KS6O/OHØ, KS6O/SMØ, Ø7/81)

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