[TowerTalk] Telrexn iin the wind

[earl baillley]

Back about 1982 I cajoled the co into supplying  a tribander Telrex for our big iron  boat. It came when we were in shipyard so I was able to cajole a 4 inch pipe about 30 long to get mounted with three 2 inch 10 ft long tripods.above the flying bridge (about 80 ft above the water)

Worked great, biggest MM signal from the S China Sea. Then the wind.  We next had a 2 el 3 bander with no trace of the missing el.  Got two more runs out of that before it became a single el rotatable beam.   Even that worked good  Better than the 30 ft vac cap  tuned Harris vertical on the same deck. I think I still have one trap assembly.

Hands down proof horizontal better than vertical but when the final element went the company wouldn't replace it as it had been rumored I was using it for ham radio and not weather fax.

That was a fun 4 month tour My replacement tried to make a dipole that would stand up with the pieces and parts.  Best element turned out to be a goodly long bamboo trunk which tapered 4 to  1.5 inches when cut to length. Note found out bamboo did not like to be drilled. We learned to love verticals

Got a new Capt who frowned on ham stuff. Charlie the Tuna. Really pissed him when he couldn't read the Amtor we started to use.

I got off in '89 -- a good ten years and quite glad to leave Charllie the Tuna behind

Telrex made a good product  - had one in NY up for more than ten years

Nobody can make a ham tribander for an LNG Tanker that will live more than a year.

Earl W7TK