[ARDF] Tape Measure yagis

[Charlesscharlau at aol.com]

Just two brief comments on the excellent points that Matthew brings up:



In a message dated 9/26/2003 1:57:29 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
aa9yh at hotmail.com writes:

> 
> A few of my comments about the TMB:
> 
> 1.  One website recommends not putting anything on the sharp element tips to 
> 
> avoid mistuning the antenna.  I think that's completely unsafe.  I finished 
> my second antenna in a hurry, and I didn't put on "tip treatments" right 
> away.  I cut myself twice on those stupid things.  I almost cut someone else 
> 
> when I popped an element out one day.  I don't want to sound like Mom here, 
> but you *could* put your eye out.  "You could hurt somebody.  You could hurt 
> 
> yourself!"

Rather than putting tape on the ends of rough ends of the elements I prefer 
to carefully file the ends of the elements until they are smooth all the way 
across, and the corners are rounded. I doubt that detuning is a serious concern 
when using tape, but the antenna does look better without tape, and who's to 
say that those ragged ends won't eventually work their way through the tape or 
whatever you use to cover them?



> 
> 2.  Most (not all) of the TMBs I see have a handle built aft of the 
> reflector.  I find that really tiring.  I want to hold the antenna at the 
> Center of Gravity. (Jay Hennigan mentioned this too.)  


You can have the best of both worlds: mount the handle at the center of 
gravity. I tried this with my latest TMB and liked the results. I used a PVC "T" 
piece near the CG, then mounted the handle to a piece of pipe attached to the 
'T'.