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Poster:	Ralf Muehlen	Date:	Dec 11, 2006 9:16am
Forum:	sflan	Subject:	Re: whither Ralf?

Dan,
I'm out of town till the end of the week. I can't devote a lot of time on maintenance at the moment, but I might be able to take a look at your snapped antenna.

I assume the antenna that snapped is a dish. I have always been skeptical about how those dishes shake in the wind, but never had any of the ones I installed actually fail. They are designed that way and are even supposed to hang tight with just one U-bolt. Their rated wind load is 80.5 lb at 100 mph, and 125.5 lb at 140 mph. (I assumed the manufacturer actually did wind tests.)

At any rate, the same type of dish has been up on San Bruno Mountains in very strong winds for years now without snapping off. (An older incarnation of that antenna of a slightly different design apparently did not have its screws properly tightened, and half of the reflector fell off, and yet the mounting bracket showed no sign of wear and tear.)

Without having seen the broken aluminum flange, maybe it might be possible to either have a replacement made out of steel, or to attach the flange not to the pole directly, but to a larger steel piece that in in turn has more contact points to the pole (at the possible loss of vertical adjustability).

Alternatively, there are yagi and flat panel antennas that, while being less focused, have a smaller wind profile.

I'll contact you off-channel, to come by and take a look.
Ralf