[600MRG] Fwd: Some advice needed...as usual

Sat Dec 14 23:50:12 CST 2013

Greetings all

Regarding ===> "I think the wooden box Mike mentioned is also good, especially if you can paint and seal it to prevent if from retaining water.
>>> 
>>> 73 and good luck!v
>>> John XIQ
"

One process I know about personally is boiling wood in Paraffin to make wooden things virtually inert to weathering. Way back around 1985 I boiled a top-plate side-thrust bearing for the top of my Rohn-25 tower using 1-inch thick interior-grade plywood. I drilled the hole for the mast and attachment bolt-holes in the wood and boiled it in Paraffin for about 30-minutes.

Today, neatly 30-years later after being out in the wx (coastal salt air/dry-ID/wet-WA), it looks as nice as the day it was fabricated.

I would think a box built to your specifications, screwed together and boiled in Paraffin on all six sides will outlive its fabricator. Prior to boiling in Paraffin the edges of the four pieces to which the cover is attached can be routed-out to make a recess into which an RTV-bead could be squirted to make a perfect gasket for the final assembly.

One might have to experiment a bit to see if a better moisture seal results from dis-assembling the box and boiling each of the six pieces in paraffin and then re-assembling it using RTV between each joint OR assembling the box and boiling each box surface and counting on the resulting wax seal at each joint.

Just a thought . . .

73 de Dick/w7wkr CN98pi and CN97uj

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> On Dec 14, 2013, at 8:57 PM, Laurence KL7 L <hellozerohellozero at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> From: Laurence KL7 L <hellozerohellozero at hotmail.com>
>> Date: December 14, 2013 at 6:41:32 PM HST
>> To: John Langridge <jlangridge at sbcglobal.net>
>> Subject: Re: [600MRG] Some advice needed...as usual
>> 
>> Blue Rubbermaid here too - with no mods or coatings - its been in and outside since 2005 and still plyable. I reinforced the base with a plastic cutting board as the coupler for 137 weighs around 45 pounds. The occasional bug gets in but stayed dry inside - i need a little ventilation which the clip lid does for me.
>> 
>> Laurence KL7L in KH6
>> 
>>> On Dec 14, 2013, at 2:55 PM, "John Langridge" <jlangridge at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi Kenneth,
>>> 
>>> I am using a 54 gallon rubbermaid tub from Walmart.  It has a latching lid, which is important when it gets windy.
>>> 
>>> You can look at a lot of the larger rubbermaid products here:  http://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/Pages/SubCategoryLanding.aspx?SubcatId=Roughneck&CatName=Storage
>>> 
>>> I think you could make it all fit in one of these.  In my case, the motor for the vario is an antenna rotator and I have it outside of the box with a shaft that goes through a grommet into the box to turn the coil.  I had enough room looking back to put that rotator in my box but just left it outside.
>>> 
>>> My box has several coats of krylon as well as a UV protector... I don't know how these plastics will work in your persistent and extreme cold wx but down here in the heat they seem to work well and they are waterproof.
>>> 
>>> Another option that I considered before the rubbermaid tub was a sealing and locking patio garden tool box.  I think the big box home improvement stores carry these and they are basically the same size as the rubbermaid tube but has a hinged top that seals and locks.
>>> 
>>> I think I paid $25 for my rubbermaid tub and the garden tool box was over $150 for the cheap one..
>>> 
>>> I think the wooden box Mike mentioned is also good, especially if you can paint and seal it to prevent if from retaining water.
>>> 
>>> 73 and good luck!
>>> 
>>> John XIQ
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: Kenneth G. Gordon <kgordon2006 at frontier.com>
>>> To: 600MRG at w7ekb.com 
>>> Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2013 5:25 PM
>>> Subject: [600MRG] Some advice needed...as usual
>>> 
>>> 
>>> OK. I need to install a remote antenna tuner. The unit I am building 
>>> is pretty big, but will do the job.
>>> 
>>> The advice I need from you kind folks is, what sort of container can 
>>> you suggest that will be water-tight and yet easily opened to work 
>>> in?
>>> 
>>> Some sort of plastic picnic basket or somethin' ?
>>> 
>>> To fill you in a little bit: The rotary coil I am using is out of the 
>>> BC-939 antenna tuner that originally was part of the BC-610 
>>> transmitting setup.
>>> 
>>> Since the coil is quite large and somewhat difficult to turn, I am 
>>> using an old satellite TV dish mover and control to operate it.
>>> 
>>> There will also be two fairly large relays in the box.
>>> 
>>> The coil is 14" long, 9" wide and 8" high and has 1/2" thick ceramic 
>>> end-plates. The satellite TV dish-mover has a gear-motor (with 
>>> position sensors) that is 3" wide, 5" tall, and about 9" deep with 
>>> the shaft sticking out of it.
>>> 
>>> So, overall length with the drive attached to the coil will be on the 
>>> order of 23".
>>> 
>>> Ideas?
>>> 
>>> As soon as I can get my large base-loading coil finished (8" diameter 
>>> PVC and about 600 mH), I'll need to be able to switch that into and 
>>> out of the base of my 55' vertical.
>>> 
>>> I intend to use the BC-939 coil in series with the big coil to enable 
>>> me to QSY a bit at 630 meters.
>>> 
>>> Ken W7EKB
>>> 
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