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2025.10.11 K0DV antenna adjust:


Doug found the antenna to be disagreeing a bit too much with the rotor control box so I stopped back out to
align it closer. When I got there it looked to be about 15-20 degrees to the left. Doug's house is close to
square with North but not quite, exaggerating the discrepancy of the antenna as viewed from the ground.

It should have been a simple matter of climbing up, loosening the clamps, giving the antenna a little turn, and
then tightening down the clamps. When I got up there I loosened the clamps, used the compass app on my phone
to spot a tree in the distance that was magnetic North, and then turned the antenna to match it. Before fully
tightening the clamps I took a pic of the rotor plate with my wrench for scale.

Unfortunately, as I was tightening the rotor clamps, one of the top nuts gave a brief squeak and then suddenly
snapped clean off. I was just hand-tightening with a short wrench, so this came as a complete surprise. I
don't think I got more than a quarter turn turning that squeak, and I've never seen a bolt break so fast. When
I was removing the previous rotor a week ago, one of the nuts was rusted on and I cranked it at least two full
rotations while it squeaked until it finally broke off, and that's the sort of behavior I've come to expect from
rusted and frozen hardware. The u-bolt was stainless and so was the nut, and they were the new ones that came
with the new (NOS) rotor. Chinesium maybe? Or a defect in the bolt?

I didn't bring any spare hardware and we had a ham club meeting to get to so it'll have to wait, maybe until
tomorrow, to swap out the broken clamp. The other one tightened down fine, though I asked Doug not to move
the antenna until we can get the clamp replaced, since it's nicely aimed and I don't want it to slip before
we get the clamp replaced.

Pictures include pic of the new rotor installed (with wrench for scale, just before tightening clamps) and one
broken egg insulator (along with other good insulators)

IMG_4599	IMG_4601	IMG_4604	IMG_4605	IMG_4608	IMG_4610
IMG_4611	IMG_4614

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