[TowerTalk] Force12 rivets

[K7LXC at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/18/2011 7:31:14 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
towertalk-request at contesting.com writes:

>  I'm not sure if Force12 still uses riveted construction  of yagi 
elements.
In any event, I just experienced my first rivet failure  on my C3S (great
timing, huh?) and would like to avoid repeating this  experience.  What is
the tried and true wisdom on preventing rivet  failure on these antennas?


    First, the rivets are great. They're easy to use,  effective and reduce 
the cost and weight of the antenna over the old hose  clamp method.




What you need to do is to  use the rivets on 2 sides (180 degrees apart) or 
3 sides (120 degrees apart).  There is enough tolerance in the element 
piece to element piece that using the  conventional 1 side placement for the 
rivets can lead to failure, especially in  areas where there's a fair amount of 
wind. (Hams in Texas used to call the KLM  antennas Konstantly Losing Metal 
since they kept shedding elements. If you use  the aforementioned method of 
2 or 3 rows of rivets, the problem will disappear. 
 
Cheers,
Steve    K7LXC
TOWER TECH