[TowerTalk] Rigid Steel Conduit as Mast?

[Jim Brown]

On Fri, 5 Jun 2009 19:48:48 EDT, K7LXC at aol.com wrote:

>So how much exposed mast will you have below the  antenna (top of tower 
>to antenna spacing)?

I plan to use a G1000 rotor and a 25AG3 top section, and the rotor shelf is 42 
inches below the top of the tower. That will put about 3 ft of mast inside the 
tower. I can use any length of exposed mast that is structurally suitable. 

>The proposed material is  really 1.9" OD, which is a little skewed 
>from normal 2" OD ham equipment but  probably not enough to be fatal. The 
>SteppIR mast clamps are a really tight fit  on 2" tubing so I imagine there 
>will still be a sufficient fit for a reliable  albeit slightly smaller 
>installation. A 3L SteppIR is a relatively small load so  given your proposed 
>installation, it'll probably be fine. 

Thanks Steve. I measured the i.d. of the mast tube built into the top section. 
It's 2.05 inches. 

Mike said:

>The Steppir tends to slip on anything slightly smaller than a 2" mast, if
>you go this route use DX Engineering clamps, actually I would use them
>anyway.

Thanks for all the thoughtful comments.  

73,

Jim K9YC