[VHFcontesting] Fwd: MAST FOR ROVERS

[Chris Lumens]

>The picture shows your rotator and mast without a thrust bearing, if I
>am not mistaken. I assume you're using a design that does not exceed any
>force limits. I don't have much experience with portable/roving VHF/UHF
>operation, so I appreciate your help!

It's hard to see, but if you zoom way in on either picture and look just
under the lower horizontal bar of the H frame, you might be able to see
what I'm doing.  I've got a guy ring sitting on top of a clamp and then
that is guyed with eight different ropes to the truck bed.  Four ropes
go to cleats around the top of the bed, and four go to rings on the bed
itself.

The ring and clamp is also from Penninger:

https://www.penningerradio.com/product/slip-ring-assembly-with-clamp/

That seems sufficient to prevent movement of the mast.  I haven't
noticed it wiggling around at all.  The ropes do need to be periodically
tightened, however.  Adding turnbuckles might make that easier (or maybe
switching from rope to wire?).

And then to prevent movement of the entire setup, I have a couple
hundred pounds of sand on top of the pallet, and two 2x6" boards screwed
to it that make it the exact length of the truck bed.  It does not move
around while in motion.

>I am considering using a rotator with my Penninger mast and am
>investigating  possible thrust bearing configurations.
>I'll only mount three or four Directive Systems (7 foot booms-144, 222 and
>432) beams on that mast.

I have other truck-based ideas for how to mount things.  I was thinking
some sort of rack like https://yakima.com/products/overhaul-hd-system
(there are tons of brands - this is just the first picture I found)
might give me a way to install cross bars that could then have a real
thrust bearing mounted on that.  If the rack could be installed right at
cab height, I wouldn't have to move the antennas up at all to clear.

All this rover stuff is just constant trial and error, which is
unfortunate because it's also expensive.

-- 
Chris Lumens - KG6CIH
Hike * MTB * XC Ski * Haskell
Research - Experimentation - Testing - More Testing