[TowerTalk] winds here in the winter that are pretty bad

[Jim Thomson]

Date: Wed, 04 Mar 2015 22:02:50 -0500
From: "Roger (K8RI) on TT" <K8RI-on-TowerTalk at tm.net>
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] "...//..winds here in the winter that are
pretty bad."

I figure any rotator I use should be capable of turning the antenna 
regardless of winds.  After tearing up a few of the ham series and an 
HDR-200, or 300 (forget which). It looked rugged, but I released the 
brake on a windy day.  It wen't past the stops and tore up 4, of 5 
pigtails.  That's when the PST61 went up.  That had a design problem 
with the top seal, but it'd turn and stop normally regardless of the wind.

73

Roger (K8RI)

## Its an HDR-300.   It would go a long way to helping things out if the damned
yagis  were designed and engineered correctly in the 1st place.   Simple matter
to add a torque compensator plate down at REF end of the boom.   Fellow
across  town was destroying T2Xs, 3 in a row on his long boom 20m yagi,
with eles bunched up at the REF end.   Of course it was mounted in the usual way
at the CG.   I designed the tq comp plate for him, using Yagi stress.    End of
problems.   With the rotor removed, and on a 35 mph windy day,  it could be 
turned by hand  in any direction..and it would stay put.   Without the tq comp
plate it would weather vane, and rip up the t2x. 

##  If you insist on dragging a parachute behind your car, you will require another
350 hp. 

##  another method  of tq comp is to mount at center of boom, then use a counter
weight at the DIR end of the boom..... light end of the boom. 

##  The tq comp plate is so simple its  beyond me why its not used more often.   You can
easily reduce the tq  down to virtually nothing. 

Jim  VE7RF