HI Mike: I still stand by my use of Lexan. 120 feet of Rohn weighs less than 400 pounds, down force from guys could add another 250 pounds or so. Lexan has a compressive strength of over six tons per square inch. your limit is not the Lexan, rather what the tower will sit on, IE concrete base or what, and not sink into the ground. . If you really want a nice looking insulator, solvent weld (use only the solvent for Lexan) a column four to five inches tall and machine in a lathe. nearly any diameter would be ok, but I would probably go four to six inch dia. if you think it must pivot add a small trailer hitch ball and socket. This is not a BC station tower. also consider only going 80 feet and either top load or base load. there is no differance in radiation pattern than a 120 foot tower, only the Z. most important is the radial system. if your friend is not willing to lay down at least 60 radials at least 120 feet long, he is already seriously limiting himself. Use very small copper wire and lay on the surface stretched tight, it will vanish in the grass. ebay is a good source of wire. he will need miles of it. my 80/40 verticles have 9.25 miles of wire in the radial system. I use aluminum irrigation pipe, very light and easy to pull up by hand or with a small machine. Lexan is very tough stuff, I would not be surprised if 1/2 inch would stop a .357. one inch would do it easily. Bernie W8RPW
----- Original Message ----- From: "M. K. Hess" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2009 9:02 AM Subject: [AMRadio] Base Insulators for 125' tower > Hi Folks, > > A friend of mine is thinking of putting up a 125' tower for 160m use on > AM. > He's collecting up old TV tower sections > from folks who are no longer using them for TV, and the plan is to build a > vertical out of it. Here's the $65K question he threw at me > and I thought I'd open it up to the group. What can he reliably use as > base > insulators for this tower/antenna project?? > > Anyone had any experience with building a vertical like this, and have a > suggestion? > > Mike - N3EAQ > > > ______________________________________________________________ > Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net > AMRadio mailing list > Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html > List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio > Post: [email protected] > To unsubscribe, send an email to [email protected] with > the word unsubscribe in the message body. > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Post: [email protected] To unsubscribe, send an email to [email protected] with the word unsubscribe in the message body. This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
