The HX Files Xcert 015

Hello and welcome to x-tract 15 from the HX-Files.

Firstly

I was delighted to meet and thank the few brave people who came up to me at both the Coolmine rally, and at the I.R.T.S. AGM in Limerick and freely admitted, that they read and enjoyed the HX-Files, so to them again I say thank you.

M E Folan Shield
and winning project.

Kevin Freeney Shield
and winning project

Secondly, I was delighted to be awarded two excellent trophies for construction, the M E Folan shield (EI 6 E), and the Kevin Freeney shield (EI 9 BMB) at the I.R.T.S.AGM in Limerick on the 27^th of March. I was, like some of you dear readers a bit reluctant to submit anything but after a bit of prompting I decided to enter a couple of items and was delighted to be awarded the I.R.T.S. shields, so I say to you don’t be shy, your friends will tell you what they think of it, as you can be your own worst judge on your own work, so go on and submit your construction project for the AGM in 2012, you never know what may happen, and don’t forget that the magic word in constructing your project is “prototype”, so it does not have to be ready for mass production, but it has to be safe and tidy, and most importantly it has to do what it says on the tin, so see you at the awards table at the I.R.T.S. AGM next year. 

   

Next project for/m or /p.

I decided to build a new mast for mobile/portable setup this year. This one would be used mainly for the short sessions when I was only going to setup a station for a couple of hours, and as I have a couple of /p masts a 10m and a 8m one that has yet to see the light of day (and no it is not for sale) that would be used for some of the longer outings and for bigger aerials. I have often been told that you don’t need a huge mast if you are going /p on top of a mountain, so with that in mind this setup would not be a big mast but a small and handy one, if I can use the term “mast” describing an 8ft setup, (that’s 2.44m in new money) this project would involve the mast mounted onto a bracket, and this in turn would be attached onto the tow bar of the car. I did see some types of hardware that could be modified and used for what I needed, but as with most things you need for a /m or /p station you can never get the finished part you need and you would have to adapt and even destroy a brand new item by cutting and wielding it to get it to do what you want it to do. So after a talk with Kevin EI 5 JG, we decided that he would make what I needed from scratch. After trying various sizes of pipe both round and square we ended up with the idea of using a piece of channeling (or a U bar as some call it) and a piece of metal plate. Before the metal plate was wielded to the U piece a 25mm hole was drilled in it, a 15mm hole was drilled in the U piece, and a nut wielded over the drilled hole, and then a piece of round bar was wielded onto the matching bolt giving it a T bar look, and this in turn would act as a permanently attached spanner, a 30cm length of tubing will be used for giving it an extra bit of tension. The reason for the 25mm hole was, as the bolt is been tighten on the other side of the box the ball of the tow bar would be pushed partially into the hole and this would act as extra friction and help with stability.

 Part of the original bracket on the bottom of the mast was wielded to the box and re attached to the mast by its original screws and some large rivets. The top of the mast has some sort of clip on it, this was removed by undoing its retaing screws and a copy of the top was made as this would be used to make a small stub mast that would be attached to an aerial and some matching holes drilled in to line up with the mast top, so it could be attached to the top of the mast. The original top will be placed in the stores shed along with the remaining part of the bottom piece (never to be seen again no doubt). If my car was parked on uneven ground the mast could be tilted vertically by undoing the bolt with one hand and holding onto the mast with the other hand. I would use a small spirit level to give me the vertical line, and if needed I could also use the roof rack on the car and its end clamps to tie some rope to act as stays if the weather conditions were to get a bit windy. I made up a little kit bag to keep with the mast, a disc (on the mast) that goes over the top of the mast and comes to rest at the half way point of the mast and the stays could be attached to that, 2 small pegs, some stay rope, and a persuader. In the pictures you can see the finished mast with the 35el beam for 23cms on the top and under it a 10GHz setup that includes the dish and a 50mw transmitter housed in the box bolted onto it. I hope by the time you read this that the new setup has done a few trials and it may have had some tweaks carried out on it, this seems to be par for the course for home builders.

That’s all for now, see you all next time and may all your reports be P5.

73’s Pat.