Tag Archives: steel

How to fit T&K brackets to the corner of a wall

I love engineering challenges and I needed an elegant solution to mount a vertical antenna right on the corner of my house.
In the end, I used 3 x 24 inch T brackets from Barenco Antenna Hardware store. Poor Brian (Barenco owner) was a little confused by my request but he dispatched my order all the same and I’m pleased with the results.

By the way, a little tip. Don’t use those RawPlug type anchor bolts, they expand and they are tightened and could break off the side of the brick, particularly right on a corner. Instead, use Multi-Monti bolts. These cut a thread inside a pre-drilled hole. The beauty of Multi-Monti bolts is that you can remove them and re-install them at will. If you want to fill in the hole afterwards, use Frame Mastic from ScrewFix (or similar). You will never know your aerials were once there.

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Raising Steel Antenna Mast on T&K brackets with pulley

I’m gradually swapping out any aluminium antenna poles for steel. Clearly these are very heavy, particularly with an antenna on top.

The trick is to use V bolts (like U clamps but in a V shape) and not to use saddle clamps because the pole will not slide easily past the U bolt saddle clamp.

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What size pole to insert to a steel scaffold tube?

Most radio amateur operators look at a pole* and immediately wonder how they might use it in their hobby. It becomes a weird past time and can become somewhat of a burden when passing for instance, a section of tubing in a handy-man store. I have to stop and work out if they nest together – or will they go inside some other tube I might have.

However, I have solved one riddle which is what diameter pole can I slip inside a standard steel scaffold tube?

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