[TowerTalk] Buying 6" sections of Alum tubing

[Dick Williams]

In theory, buying 6 ft sections of tubing and throwing them up sounds like a 
good plan.  I tried doing something similiar to that with the "remains" of a 
2 ele 80 mtr beam.

Very simple plan,  take the two halves of each element, extend them a 
little bit, set them vertical on insulators, guy them at two levels, and 
BINGO - a four sq vertical array!

Well, it worked; at least until the wind started to blow and be damned if 
two of them didn't break.  Easy fix, double wall the "break" area.  Did 
that, and the next time the wind blew, breaks at other points.

In any case I went through three itterations of "double walling" before I 
got them to withstand the wind; and the bottom three sections of mine that 
extemd 19 ft are 2 1/2" tubing (no "mods" necessary there).

Obviously someone more savey than I who knows how to calculate wind loads 
and breaking strength could have done it on paper and avoided the "trial and 
error" approach!!  So far the highest gust I have seen is a tad over 60 mph 
since I have put them up.  Since Jan the highest gust for the year is 54 mph 
in Feb. Where I live it seems like anything under 35 is a relative calm day.

I will say that I feel sorry for the guys in the Boulder, CO area; they get 
gusts of 90 mph on what seems to be a somewhat regular basis.

Dick K8ZTT.





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "RICHARD SOLOMON" <w1ksz at q.com>
To: "TowerTalk" <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 5:11 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] DX Engineering 66-Foot Vertical?


>
> You can do the same thing by buying 6' sections of Aluminum tubing
>
> from Texas Towers and a couple of boxes of SS Hose Clamps and
>
> save yourself $50 in the deal.
>
>
>
> 73, Dick, W1KSZ
>
>> From: n7mal at citlink.net
>> To: mike at mallardcove.com; jmaass at k8nd.com; towertalk at contesting.com
>> Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:40:04 +0000
>> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] DX Engineering 66-Foot Vertical?
>>
>> Here is a link for a similar product from Hy-Gain
>> http://www.hy-gain.com/Product.php?productid=ATM-65
>>
>>
>>
>> MAL
>> N7MAL
>> BULLHEAD CITY, AZ
>> http://www.n7mal.com
>> Everyone in the world is
>> entitled to be burdened
>> by my opinion
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: Mike Fatchett
>> To: jmaass at k8nd.com ; towertalk at contesting.com
>> Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 20:13
>> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] DX Engineering 66-Foot Vertical?
>>
>>
>>
>> Here is the webpage for the 65 ft verticals from DXE. I have had a number
>> of people ask where I found it. It is found under vertical antenna parts
>> Aluminum tubing kits.
>>
>> http://www.dxengineering.com/Products.asp?ID={51E69B40-1957-45C7-98DD-1B5C9D
>> 56B2F0}&SecID=137&DeptID=32
>>
>>
>>
>> "A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you 
>> may
>> never get over." Ben Franklin
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jeff Maass [mailto:jmaass at k8nd.com]
>> Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 5:07 AM
>> To: mike at mallardcove.com
>> Subject: [Spam] DX Engineering 66-Foot Vertical?
>>
>>
>> G'day Mike:
>>
>> I saw the following from you on the TowerTalk reflector:
>>
>> "I see DX Eng has a 66 ft vertical that
>> needs to be guyed and runs about $200
>> for the aluminum kit, $160 for the tilt
>> base and about $80 for the guying kit."
>>
>> I cannot find anything like that on the DX Engineering web pages: perhaps 
>> I
>> have a blind spot. Can you help me find it (model number, link, etc.)?
>>
>> We are looking to possibly add some phased verticals on 80m for the PJ2T
>> station, as we are not yet "rock crushing" on that band.
>>
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> Jeff Maass K8ND
>>
>> Station Manager PJ2T,
>> Caribbean Contesting Consortium
>>
>> CCC Web Site: http://www.pj2t.org
>> PJ2T Slide Show: http://www.k8nd.com/Radio/DELARA_PPT2.pdf
>> Curacao Critters: http://www.CuracaoCritters.com
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
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