[TowerTalk] 40 meter dipole

[James Wolf]

Terry,

30 years ago, I put up two 2 meter 16 element antennas on a long boom.
They are supposed to be self-supporting, but sometimes, not so much.   I
used a thimble like this https://www.lexcocable.com/thimbles.html and put a
hose clamp around the boom and through the thimble.  In my case I used 3/16"
dacron rope.  I don't have a picture of the finished product, but they are
still up in the air at around 106 and 117 ft.   Make sure the knot is tight
against the thimble so it won't slip off the thimble.

Another way I have seen it done is  to replace a bolt in the boom-to-boom
joint with a Stainless Steel eyelet and tie the rope around the hole in the
eyelet.   I would go with the first method.

Jim - KR9U



<Been working on my 40 meter rotatable dipole I plan to put up at 124 feet
or so. But I'm worried about making sure whatever I come up with to fix the
3/16" dacron truss lines to the elements out about 20' or so are secure.
Dealing with the DXE tubing when <it gets down below 1" or so I don't want
anything too heavy. Also don't want to drill and weaken the dipole. I
actually came up with some 'rings' from Wilco just about the right size that
would slip over the 0.5", 0.625", 0.750" to I believe the 0.875". There I
<could use 1/2"-1 1/4" hose clamps to make sure the ring doesn't slip
further up. Just the dacron wrapped around the ring might be enough to keep
that from happening but I don't trust it.


<I'm not sure I could trust just using the hose clamps to hold the dacron
line but I don't want to drill and weaken the tubing in any way.


<Any better idea? You can see a few pictures of what I'm building on my
QRZ/KI7M page.


<Terry

<KI7M