Friday, 17 August 2012

Changes at the Top!

Well,

I've not been overly happy with the arrangement to adapt from the top section of my new mast (which is 2" OD box section aluminium) to the 2" OD pole that holds the rotator. This was originally a aluminium plate that had "U" bolts for the pole and some nuts and bolts that fitted through the plate and then through one wall of the top mast section. When the wind picked up there was the risk of:

  1. The whole thing folding back on itself;
  2. The plate twisting.
You can see the original plate in this picture here:


Now, as I was concerned about this before the changes today, I had actually inserted a smaller diameter pole inside the rotator pole which was secured by a bolt that passes right through the rotator clamp. This smaller pole extends through the top rotator stub mast down into the top section box part of the mast itself. This (I was certain) would ensure that the plate didn't fold back on itself in high winds.

So, what I have done today is use a piece of 3" OD aluminium box section to create a kind of sleeve that sits over the rotator stub mast and the top section of the mast itself, this sketch kind of explains what I've made:

And it looks like this in reality:


And this is a close up of the top section of the mast itself where it enters the new sleeve:


And here you can see how I have made larger (looks like using my teeth) holes in one of the walls of the sleeve to access the bolt heads to ensure the pole and the mast top are hard and fast against the side wall:


and this is the underside of the same bolt:


So, all in all, I think this will enable me to sleep better knowing that the antenna isn't about to land on the back of the house!

What do you recon, better egh? Cat's not impressed, seems to like the new radio though:

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