[OZAPRS] OT: what to use for Antenna Tip?

[Terry Neumann]

I've found stainless steel whip material almost impossible to source in 
Adelaide.    If you do find it, they invariably have a minimum order 
value of *here insert suitably outrageous figure* ($100 was seriously 
stated by one crowd).

Consequently I use 3.2 mm Nickel Bronze gas welding rod as the tuning 
spike for my whips, both home brew, and also in a couple on instances to 
pull commercial whips down to a lower frequency.  This size was spot on 
for my Mobile One whips.  I've successfully dragged a 20 metre whip down 
to 30 metres doing this and also fiddled amateur whips onto RFDS slots 
when there was a need to do so.

Nickel Bronze is quite weather resistant, and has sufficient spring in 
it to hold its straightness under normal road speeds. The stuff I use 
was from CIG and was packaged in a plastic tube with 8 rods, each 750 mm 
long. (It was a very long time ago, but is still a current stock item)  
I have no idea what the cost would be today.  Try any welding supplies 
place - they should have them, or better still try and scrounge a single 
rod from a local welding outfit if you can.

73,
Terry
VK5ATN



Damien Gardner Jnr wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> I have a mobileone 30m whip on the car for HF APRS - it's a bloody 
> great little (well, not so little :-p) antenna, but I'm having hell 
> getting a replacement tip for it..  M1 have been nice enough to send 
> me a couple of replacements, but one was too short, and the other, the 
> envelope arrived without the tip! (actually the envelope arrived 
> without the tip inside on the first one too, but the envelope and tip 
> were in an Auspost envelope.. this latest one, there was just no tip 
> in either envelope!)  Seems Auspost don't have any testing of 
> envelopes before they go into the sorting machines, to see if they'll 
> actually BEND..which is a bit bizarre.. - I've shipped THOUSANDS of 
> LED's simply in an envelope with a sheet of thin card either side, and 
> never had a complaint from customers..
>
> So anyway.. - I really don't want to hassle M1 any more.. - they don't 
> seem to want to tell me what the tip is (i.e. what type of steel, what 
> diameter), so wondering if anyone else has had to replace the tip on 
> their M1 whip themselves, and happens to know what I'm asking metaland 
> to order in for me?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Damien
>
> Damien Gardner Jnr
> VK2TDG. Dip EE. GradIEAust
> rendrag at rendrag.net <mailto:rendrag at rendrag.net> - 
>  http://www.rendrag.net/
> --
> We rode on the winds of the rising storm,
>  We ran to the sounds of thunder.
> We danced among the lightning bolts,
>  and tore the world asunder
>
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