Saturday, April 11, 2020

Chimney Antenna Mount


We had some serious wind gusts with a cold front that moved in.  Usually the winds come in March, but this year they came mid-April. Well, I added one more antenna to the stack.  One more straw that broke the camel's back.  This chimney strap-mount was ok when it was just a 6 meter antenna, but it just couldn't take the wind and all the loading on the mast.

This is how I found it Friday morning.  I had to use a piece of paracord to hold the rotator motor upright and lashed to the edge of the chimney to give myself a warm fuzzy overnight so it wouldn't blow down and wreck all the antennas.

Here we are Saturday morning with the equipment as found.





It took about 3 hours mostly on my own to put everything back together.  The new mount is very stout made out of hardened steel bed frame angle iron.  I stood on it after it was torqued down.  That shouldn't go anywhere.  The antennas were re-arranged in the proper order to minimize the torque moment on the mast.  The 432 is now at the top (center mounted), the 6 is in the middle because it is small.  And the 2/3 rds of the 17B2 Cushcraft is at the bottom because it is so huge and heavy.  I had to put the outriggers on it to support the weight and keep it from sagging.

I can replace the feedline on the 6m antenna later after the roofers have replaced the shingles.  For now we're done.


Happy DX and we're back on the air!

1 comment:

  1. Glad to hear you got everything re-erected. Any improvement in hearing beacons on 432? When we go to Baltimore for Greek dinner, I'll explain to your wife why you NEED a 60 ft. crank over tower.

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