[UK-CONTEST] ANTENNA SUPPORT

[Ian White GM3SEK]

Don Beattie wrote:
>
>Others drew my attention to the April 2009 RadCom (which I had 
>forgotten) where Ian GM3SEK outlined a "bearing" approach to attaching 
>dipoles at the top of rotating masts.

Credit for that goes to Jan G0IVZ - if it works for his Top Band dipole 
at 100ft, it'll work for nearly anyone.


>A variant on this commented on by some involved dropping a second pole 
>(very lose fit and perhaps plastic/nylon/fibreglass) into the top of 
>the stub-mast, making sure it was greased so that it could turn inside 
>the mast and was stopped from dropping fully into the mast by some sort 
>of clamp at its top. To this clamp is attached the pulley/halyard for 
>the dipole.
>
>There was a lot of support for a non-conducting top section at the top 
>of the stub-mast, to avoid the dipole conductors touching the mast as 
>things move.
>

With Jan's method the dipole conductors don't ever come near the pole.
But definitely still use fibreglass, because it has to handle an awful 
lot of sideways and downward pull. For your scale of operations, Don, it 
would be best to follow Jan's example and use a straight 2in pole (not 
tapered sections).


-- 

73 from Ian GM3SEK