The HX Files 026

 

Hello and welcome the HX Files.

In this issue of Echo Ireland I would like to talk about a couple of small masts made for the car, the car has not got a tow bar fitted at the moment, but it does have a couple of towing eyes. These towing eyes are hidden behind a couple of panels on the cars front and rear bumpers, and when these panels are removed it will expose a treaded hole that the towing eye can be screwed into,  also some cars have an eye(s) wielded to its chassis, bot more of that type later.

Caution

Please be careful when you operate portable and are setting up a mast of any height , when you get on site just don’t  look straight ahead and see were your  horizon is but also look up, to see if there are any cables above your  aerials.

Shopping

 The idea for this project came to mind in a local Aldi store, I was looking at their usual weekly bargains and noticed they some clothes line risers, and they were only €3.50 each and extend to 8 ft, so 2 were put into the trolley. As yet I had no idea what to do with them ( certainly nothing like what they were designed for)but as they were made of metal  they would come in handy, and as I have often found out that after they have all been sold I have found a need for them and now they cannot be got. While waiting my turn in the queue, a germ of an idea started to form about using them as a couple of small mast while out portable and attaching them somehow to the car,( so I left my stuff at the conveyor belt and got 2 more, as you just never know……). First thing to do was to see what sort of towing eye bolt was in the car or to see if it was still in the boot, and to see if a length of threaded bar with the same tread as the towing eye could be got. A visit to one of the local hardware stores was made and the threaded bar bought along with some nuts, washers and a couple of eye nuts (see photo 1 below of some the parts used).

Some of the parts used

The first thing done on the car was to see how much of the bar would be used to screw up tight to the end of the nut on the car, and noticing that a longer length would be needed for the back of the car as the tail gate would hit the mast if it was left the factory length. With the sizes now sorted out the bar was cut, the ends were cleaned up with a file so they would tread onto the nuts after cutting, the middle and bottom eyes in photo 2 below, show the finished towing eyes .

The finished eyes

With that job done the next to do was to connect the mast to the eye nut , I wanted to make the union of the mast and brackets in the least amount of parts, as with the more parts you have the chances of a part being left behind  could be an issue. The diameter of the pole was greater than the threaded bar, but a piece of metal tube was found that was slightly smaller than the pole, and it itself was just larger than the threaded bar. All this would fit inside the tube and so they were drilled through and riveted together, (photo 3 below).









 The Next job was to drill a hole in a small piece of metal and wield a nut to it, and they in turn were wielded to the towing eye. The wielding was done for me by Kevin EI5JG who suggested that I could use one of the earlier mast made if I could get a towing ball that was finished like a bolt and not the usual one that ends in a plate, and yes I knew there was one in a storage bin somewhere and after a search it was found, a couple of washers s were used as spacers and put either side of the cars original towing eye and the lot bolted together (see top of photo 2).  The eye nuts used for the project had to have a couple spacers made, if I wanted to use the towing ball on them, as the nut part of the eye was wider than the rest of the circle so a piece had to be cut out of them for a better fit, (see photo below).

Previously

 As mentioned earlier, the cars that came with the other type of towing eye could have that type wielded or bolted horizontal or vertical to the car. For that job the use of a couple of pieces of angle iron would be used, as there would be more strength in the angle iron than from a piece of flat iron. The last car I had had a the towing eye vertical on the front and horizontal at the rear, and by carefully removing a piece from the H or V of the angle iron, you could use that piece for the other side of the eye. Drilling the angle and the piece of metal removed from it you would have the holes needed to bolt the bracket to the car. As for the other end of the bracket, you could remove the metal from the other plane, and that would leave you with a single bracket that could be used on the front or rear of the car. Depending on the type of mast being used the same bolt hole could be used for attaching it, if not another piece could be bolted or wielded to suit what is needed. At the end of the day I would have two new brackets to attach some small masts to the car and not having to put a number plate buster (a tow bar) on the car just for the masts. For a bigger mast the option of having a mast support that would involve the car being driven onto the bottom plate of it, and the larger mast being bolted to the upright. Depending on the weather at the site you may need to stay the mast, either way with the car being used as an anchor for the mast you will not be able to move your location as easily as if the car and mast were as one, but if you are familiar with the location you are going to use you will know what you need to bring with you.

And finally

 That’s it for this issue, may your signals be P5.

73, Pat