Lovely weekend - more work on the mast

So last Monday (Bank Holiday) I fixed the seals in the Mast (see my last Blog post) , it was a lovely day yesterday, and so I set about putting the plan for the mast in action.

Mast, small Granddaughter, and black Lab,
and yes I know the mast's not vertical, its
just a test !!

First I got the ground mount sorted.

As discussed in my last post I used a fence post spike 600mm long, which after grinding, drilling and welding provided a great ground connection for the mast.

I then set about thinking how to make sure the mast stood vertically and safely. In the end I decided on a three legged tripod which can be taken apart when not in use, I again cut, welded and drilled three legs (adjustable using butterfly nuts - a nice touch I thought :).

;

Lovely blue skies :) 

I hammered the ground spike in the ground, and test fitted the mast, all looked good, I then test fitted the legs, a bit touch and go, but after some re-engineering on the fly, all looked good, although I couldn't find the right size butterfly nuts and so final test assembly would have to wait until Sunday.

Mast from another angle, minus
Granddaughter and dogs :)

So Sunday arrives, bright and lovely, I decide to go to the Spalding Radio Rally in the morning, where I spend a pleasant hour or so wandering around, by a couple of things, got hold of a Gigatronics power meter which needs a remote head for £25 which I think is a good buy.

Return home via hardware shop to get right size butterfly nuts and bolts, complete final assembly, and then for the first time, try it out, mast pumps up beautifully, holds up without locking it, but I lock it anyway for safety. With the tripod it's really sturdy, even in the gusty wind, a real result, even the family are impressed :)

Basically it works !,perhaps  a little 'agricultural' in engineering terms, but then I'm an electronic engineer by training not a mechanical one !!. I still have some fine tuning to do but as you can see from the pictures dotted through the blog showing the fruits of my labour it worked, any comments most welcome :) . At this rate I might make am entry into the Practical Wireless low power 144Mh contest next weekend,  if I can find a suitable 2M beam 

Mast what Mast !

To top it all of course, 6M was wide open again into Europe in the afternoon via Sporadic E, worked way down into Greece, Italy, Spain and quite 'short skip' E into Germany, France and Austria. If only I'd done this earlier I might have been using the mast with a decent 50Mhz antenna on the top !! - ohh well never mind perhaps that's only a week or two away, might be ready for the 50Mhz open contest !!!


Below are a few final of pictures showing the ground mount spike / swivel and the mast in its stowed position, I haven't bothered removing it from the ground spike at the moment. Also considering if it needs to have guys as well as the tripod mount, might do so just in case, especially with a rotator and beam on top :)



Just goes to prove, where there's a will there is most definitely a way !!! 

It certainly fulfilled the design brief I set myself ...

Ground mount, mast vertical

Mast lowered and horizontal (can be removed from
ground spike if needed)

Close up of ground spike, the mast can be removed from
this by undoing the knob on top and the two silver machine
screws on the side