[TowerTalk] Topband: Radial Attachment Plate

[Lux, Jim]

On 10/30/23 5:24 PM, Stan Stockton wrote:
> Jim,
>
> Thanks for pointing me to that review.  I looked at that picture.  These
> are 304 grade stainless. DX Engineering's plate is the same - 304 stainless
> steel which is not the best for corrosion resistance.  316 would be much
> better.  Those in the review were installed on a table 100 feet from the
> sea with the crappy sheet metal screws included that will definitely
> corrode.  Of course there is a huge difference between 75 or 100 feet and 5
> miles from the salt water regarding corrosion.
>
> My plan is to get all my radials attached and then perhaps spray the whole
> thing with liquid electrical tape and deploy it when I am there for a few
> months a year.  Then I will roll the radials up and store it intact when I
> am not there, relying on however many radials I have buried during the off
> season.
>
> In my application I want it around a tower which this will do and the DX
> Engineering plate will not.


Saw the plate in half or quarters?


If you're going to goop it, maybe tar might be what you want.

And if you're going to do that, I'd use silver solder and just solder 
the wires to a segment of copper pipe or bar stock. A square around your 
antenna base would be just as good as a circle.

Writing this, welding might be even better.  You could spot weld the 
radial wires to the copper bar. No corrosion in the join - it's solid 
copper - There's probably some special flux paste, and obviously, the 
welder tips can't be copper.