[TowerTalk] Re: [Force 12 Talk] C31sidemount

[Larry Alkoff]

I recently purchased two C31XR's with side mounting one of them.  Imagine my surprise when we
hoisted it in the air and it wouldn't turn (much).

OK, I'll admit I didn't follow the 6 P's but honestly I never considered for a moment that there would
be any problem.  In retrospect, I should have have realized there is a lot of aluminum in the middle
of that beast.  In fact I walked around it on the ground and commented how many elements there were,
counting the many 10 and 15 meter directors, but never realized there _might_ be a problem.

The temporary solution is to have replaced the C31 with a C3 but hopefully that will be temporary.
Tom has told me that he once modified a C31 by lengthening the boom 20" to give room for side mounting
and told me he would re-visit that design.  If he comes up with something, I'll re-model my C31 which is
lying on the ground.

Tom was nice enough to model the C31 stacked above a C3 for me and, without measuring, the pair seem
to work fairly well - at least they don't seem to fight each other.

Hint.  Some encouragement from this group might help Tom to create a solution that would sell even more
C31's which are very fine antennas and would be even better if they could be stacked.  

Perhaps a better solution is a rotating tower since the technology seems to be perfected.
The only drawbacks are you lose the ability to have ants aimed in different directions for contest
work and (darn it) I already have a perfectly working tower that would have to be disassembled
to create a rotating tower.  <vbg>

If anyone comes up with ideas for C31 stacking, I and others on this group I'm sure would love to hear them.

73, Larry Alkoff N2LA   n2la at mindspring.com




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