TiltOverGadget

Tilt Over Gadget

Those of us Amateur Radio Operators who don’t climb are always looking for ways to do antenna work with our feet on the ground. The first step for me was a crank up tower where I could stand on the roof of the house and accomplish the tasks. When I moved to this location 14 years ago I managed to construct a tilt over fixture for the crank up mast. It still required a ladder if I installed a three element HF Beam because the element length limited the tilt.

A couple of weeks ago I took my problem to the Newsgroup rec.radio.amateur.antenna.

I was considering mounting the beam vertical but the guys there explained the reasons that was a bad idea. It was also suggested that I look into the Tiltplate mechanism offered by NN4ZZ at http://www.nn4zz.com/tiltplate.htm.

His product is considerably more robust (and expensive!) than I need for my Cushcraft A3S but it is proof of the mechanics.

Armed with the idea and a well stocked junk box I have constructed the prototype that I show here. The only shortcoming I have noted so far is that there is too much torsion flex in the vertical axis. I will remedy this when I am comfortable I have a simple solution.

In the meanwhile, I will share the work in progress…. W8CCW John Ferrell jferrell13@triad.rr.com