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

Wed Jul 28 15:02:28 EST 2010

I tried that on the last trip to melbourne (had had to trim too much off the original tip when i had it on the commodore..) - i'd have to stop and straighten it every 100km or so, as it'd bend in the wind!

Cheers,

DG

On 28/07/2010, at 2:26 PM, Pete wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Coat hanger wire can't beat it for short tips that go missing, use the straight bit, or straighten in a vice to use the sides as well. (Keep the twistie hook bit for your next bush dipole you need to hang in a gum tree)
> 
> Much cheaper than stainless steel, and easier to trim with a large set of pliers
> 
> Regards
> Peter Wicklein
> L7/31 Queen St Melbourne Vic 3000
> Dir +61 3 99273801
> Mobile +61 417 277 826
> 
> On 28/07/2010, at 11:00, Damien Gardner Jnr <rendrag at rendrag.net> wrote:
> 
>> Oooh! Good idea!  I'd completely forgotten about those :)
>> 
>> I used to make UHF CB Yagi's out of them :)   Hrrm, the good old days - working Burnie Ch8 repeater with 9 co-phased 14-element beams, driven by the whopping 3.7W output of my old FM620, from home in Kyneton :)  It's a good thing I had a ham next door, or I would have driven the neighbours nuts with the weird things that used to pop up on my tower!   Hrrm, I wonder if my old tower is still sitting over the fence where it got thrown after I shifted out?  Colin? :)
>> 
>> --DG
>> 
>> 
>> On 28/07/2010, at 10:37 AM, Terry Neumann wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 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 -  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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>>> 
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