Once again, a small stone has been laid in the river of ongoing projects: an aluminum plate, designed by myself, that aims to solve the shortcomings of the mini-tiltplate.
Although the tiltplate plays a crucial role in my station for antenna selection, it comes with several limitations:
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Each type of Yagi boom requires a different solution. Usually, the boom can be mounted inside the tiltplate, but for certain types—such as the 80mm square boom—more complex technical workarounds are necessary.
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Aligning round boom tubes is a slow and painstaking task.
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For larger antennas, my mini-tiltplate is inadequate due to a lack of sufficient mounting points.
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When a vertical boom truss is required, the mini-tiltplate offers no solution.
After much thought, I’ve come up with a solution that addresses all these issues: an adaptive aluminum plate that fits the chosen antenna perfectly. It is pre-mounted on the antenna boom and can be easily connected to the tiltplate using seven M10 bolts, with respect to the karlock security system.
Ensuring that the antenna hangs perfectly horizontal is now achieved with two adjustment screws spaced at the correct distance—no more hoping that things will align properly once airborne, but rather having certainty in advance. That makes a real difference.
My first prototype plate was delivered this week.
Fixed vertical positioning, independent of the used antenna.
This plate can easily accommodate both the OB5-10 with a round boom in combination with the SteppIR, as well as the OB2-40 with an 80mm square boom.
The Dutch company (www.lasopmaat.nl) that cut the plate works with input based on a DXF file. It was a bit of a throwback to my mechanical AutoCAD drawing days—over 30 years ago—to get this drawn. LibreCAD is a free piece of software that can generate this type of file.
The result meets all expectations. I was a bit nervous checking whether any measurement errors had slipped in—but fortunately, everything turned out perfectly.
The next step is getting the Yagi back in the air.
This opens the path for the use of several bigger monoband antennas that can be installed within minutes.