[TowerTalk] TicRing Truss Kit

[Dick Green WC1M]

The optional truss kit is used for antennas that have a boom truss. In a
typical mast-mounted installation of such an antenna, the truss wires are
connected to the mast a few feet above the boom-to-mast plate. But there is
no mast in a Tic ring installation -- the antenna sits in a cradle that's a
couple of feet long, and is secured with two curved plates over the boom at
either end of the cradle. As such, the configuration does not provide
anything to support the truss wires, and the cradle prevents attaching a
short piece of pipe to the center of the boom. The Tic-Gen truss kit solves
the problem by providing two replacement top plates for the cradle, each of
which has a short length of pipe welded on the upper side. The truss wires
are secured to the pipes at each end of the cradle.

If you do welding, you can probably make your own truss kit, or you may be
able to have someone fabricate a kit for you. I went a different route for
my 4-el SteppIRs. I simply secured a short length of pipe to the boom just
past the cradle and cut the truss wires so that one was slightly longer than
the other. In other words, the support pipe is about a foot off center. I
didn't use the SteppIR boom-to-mast plates to secure the pipe because
they're very large and would have pushed the pipe more off center. Instead,
I fashioned homebrew boom-to-mast plates out of roofing plates I got at Home
Depot and the u-bolts from the SteppIR plates. K7IR, the designer of the
SteppIR, told me it was OK for the truss support to be off center because
the truss is there for cosmetic purposes (i.e., so the boom doesn't look
droopy) and isn't actually required structurally.

Hope this helps.

73, Dick WC1M

-----Original Message-----
From: Jorge Diez - CX6VM [mailto:cx6vm.jorge at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2011 2:32 PM
To: 'Tower and HF antenna construction topics.'
Subject: [TowerTalk] TicRing Truss Kit

Hello,

 

what´s the truss kit of the Tic Ring rotor for?

 

I asked at Ticgen about a tic ring rotor, and they asked me if I need the
truss kit, and really I don´t know. I think they must know better than me.

 

So I will appreciate if anyone that have a Tic Ring rotor can clarify me the
use of the truss kit, if it´s important or not?

 

I´m afraid that because it´s a long piece, they want to avoid shipping it.
But I want to do the best installation of a tic ring, so I want to know if
it´s good to install it without the truss kit.

 

Thanks in advance

 

73,

Jorge

CX6VM/CW5W