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Built an Astroplane in an afternoon.

Homer, you amaze me. In 30 years of working on this stuff I have never seen anyone make elements out of PVC and aluminum tape. Very innovative and I like the idea for something this size.
 
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. In 30 years of working on this stuff I have never seen anyone make elements out of PVC and aluminum tape. Very innovative and I like the idea

This is what happens when a Master of All Things Hardwarian becomes involved in a Hobby like radio, Homer is the guy you want in the engine room when you are out to sea, no land in site, and the power is out....
He can get them fixed with duct tape, rubber bands and toilet paper roll.


73
Jeff
 
Homer,

Attached is a pdf of the pre-production version of the manual. It provides many parts dimensions, but nothing useful on the loop. Got the antenna around 1967 when Avanti first started in Addison, IL. Bought antenna from the owner.

73,
Mike
 

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Thanks, KC9Q!

I love any info that adds to my data base .
This Homebrew is across town being used every day by a fellow who has no means of buying any production antenna. A proud family refused to be given the antenna, so payed me a price of parts in it.

I just try to make them from things lying about the house or in local hardware stores.
 
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As I wrote before somewhere on this forum, I once repaired a destroyed front right hub where the race seat was gouged out with about three inches from the end of my leather belt.
I was only 18 years old.
We were stranded in Sheffield, TX without a resource out there for another hub. Rather than leave the car there for a week and return from Houston with a hub I cut off the belt, wound it into the race seat, put the new race on the now leather seat, dropped in the bearing, and tightened everything up. I spun it to see if the required number of rotations were being made, then I shook it back and forth to test whether the bearing was properly seated, and satisfied called Dad out to inspect. We loaded up into the two cars and a few hours later sailed ;) into Houston 450 miles distant at speed. I have never looked back since then.

Git ur dun.
 
I have a Avanti Astroplane missing is the Base Clamp Assembly with SO-239 connector i am trying to find one or wondered how can i make one????
 
Got it this time
 

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Black Skillet,
If you go back to the beginning of the thread you'll see a photo of the upper base plate where the coax connects to the antenna. Zooming it in closer reveals how I directly connected the coax to the antenna without the need of a pl239 in place. I used a piece of PVC tube to insulate the part of the descending tube assembly to which the center conductor attaches and the rest is history. You'll see a hole in the base plate where i put a second u-bolt to hold the plate securely to the descending tube.
On my next AP build I will likely simply put on a pl230 on the top plate and make it similar to original.
The way I did this one I used a section of coax that resided on the AP permanently traveling down the center mast with a coax choke 9' below the ring position finished off with a barrel connector to attach my feed line to.
The aluminum plate was available at Home Depot.
 

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