Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Broompole

You may have seen the previous post, the proposal of faking a Trans World Antenna. Mechanically such a clone would be a challenge, in particular getting good conductivity over the hinges. Maybe I will take on that challenge some other time.

However, what about back to the idea of using the broomsticks for a loaded shortened dipole. But, how get hold the stuff together? BTW, those broomsticks are 1.3m long and have a diameter of 22mm.

This is what I came up with, when searching the hardware store for a solution. The handle snug fits into a 32mm PVC plumbing bit, as shown below.


The idea is now to connect two of those bit by some pipe, such to create space for mounting means and the loading box. Oh, I forgot, I intend to build a center loading box, similar to the one in the Trans World Antennae. OK, back to what I was saying, you can see that the handles of the sticks are equipped with an eye. This comes along quite handy, since the eye more or less aligns with the T-piece's third port. The plan is to rope both broomsticks together which would enable a solid but still easily collapsible setup.

Note, those sticks could be just ideal for a 6m dipole.

Remains to put it all together....