T-Post for wire antennas.

[Mark Sarsfield]

Me, too, and it's such a simple project.  I've hooked up several ham radio wires in the past that take no more than an hour to get working and we're not having to climb any trees this time.   

Btw, Rick, here's the UPS tracking number for the 142' of wire on its way to the museum:  1Z421R7R0341609789.  Mark me down as donating $58 worth of wire in the log books.

[Rick]

Mark S
You got it.  just bring me a copy of the receipt for our records.  I do not think that the new accountant does not realize just how much is donated here.  We are alread well over $1k for this year alone in misc donations of paint and supplies and equipment.

With the wire antena, can we remove the stand up antena that the hams leave on the boat?  One or two of them seem to forget to take it down when they are done.   

Also lest try and keep the wire shored up and out of the way.  I am a real wire freek when it comes to this.  I spent too many years chasing wires in a tangled rats nest when I was working on computers.

[MWALLEN]

can we remove the stand up antena that the hams leave on the boat?

Yes...I understand what they do and why they do it...but they need to remember to take their stuff down when finished.  Nothing detracts more from the scheme we are trying to portray than to see what looks like a TV antenna on the bow of the sub.

Hopefully they'll be able to use this new antenna

[Mark Sarsfield]

Charlie Hoy was toying with the idea of using the antenna for transmitting.  I told him that it would have to wait until after hours, because you don't want people standing next to a radiator while it's transmitting.  Especially, if they fire up the amplifier.

The vertical dipole antenna that they accidentally leave up all of the time is probably used on a different band than the long wire.  So, they will still probably want to use it.  I think they hinted at moving all antennas onto shore and running coax to them, but they need to be nudged, again, to do this themselves or to let you guys move it to a location that they are comfortable with.  I think it could mount on the side of the antenna tower (vertically), since the tower is aluminum and shouldn't interfere with the wave propagation too much.

The wire will be already coiled up and zip-tied.  It should be easy to store/hide until we get a new mast built and installed forward.  Weight is about 8 lbs.

[Rick]

Mark S
I agree that these antena should be placed on the mast off the boat.  Running coax onto the boat is easy enough to hide and explain away.  I will prod Sam again and see if that is something they are willing to do. 

Also I may have found a source of scrap steel.  If you are looking for parts and pieces, give me the dimensions.  I will forward it onto my new guy and see what we can do.  This curtisy of one of the ghost hunters......

[Mark Sarsfield]

Cool.  I'll post a request in the general submarine discussion thread to get dismensions and part specs from some of the other boats.

[MWALLEN]

but I can show you what I think they did to convert this to a submarine deck gun

OK, we can take a look on Saturday.  I just don't want to put it on the sub just because we have it.  I've been looking for a photo of it but can't find it.  From memory, it just seems too big, but like I said, I can't remember exactly what it looks like.  I know the first photo I posted was a deck gun, I have several war time photos with ones just like it.  I would prefer just to keep it realistic if at all possible.

Also, we may have to prioritize projects.  Travis has the escape hatch, Mark S. has a whole bunch of stuff...Vaughn is working the sink hole, and we are working the 40mm...then starting the video stuff.  We need more bodies as this renovation of that gun is going to take a loooooooong time.

My 2 cents.  I'll help in any way I can.

Thanks!!

Mark A.

[Mark Sarsfield]

Deck Gun would get attention after the decking and painting happen.  I was just getting a feel for its placement so that I knew where to put the antennas.

Right now, I have the 1MC and radio-related items, including the antenna.  The latter are pretty easy to handle - I'm not messing with the huge transmitter.  I wouldn't mind tinkering with the SS radar set, either, but I'll let you guys handle the rotating motor.  The persicopes are wishful thinking, right now.  I really think that we need some hydraulics gurus to start working on that system.  Plus, we still pretty much lack any real power to the boat, minus lighting and electrical outlets.  Some of these things eat a lot of juice.

[Mark Sarsfield]

UPS tried to deliver the wire today, but the note ontheir website said that the museum was closed.  They will try to deliver again on Wednesday.  After that they might send it back.

[Tom Bowser]

T Posts

Here are some photos of our t bpost.
The top bar is 2" diameter 31" long, the side ears are 4 1/2" long
The diaginal posts are 2" dia. set back 3 " from ends
the top vertical pipe is 2 1/2 and 25 1/2 " long
Next section is 2 3/4" dia 33" long
Next section is 3 1/4" dia 17 1/4"
Hope this helps
Tom Bowser

[Mark Sarsfield]

Rick,

  Is this enough information to get the Vo-Tech or one of our metal working gurus to fabricate this?  Another questions is how ours will mount to the deck.  This one looks like it's welded to the deck, rather than fitting into a post hole.  I was under the impression that the Batfish's current version fits into a hole, but that could strictly be a 1950's design.  We should probably mimick this one.  I think we already have the bow light mounted to another post.  So, that's one less thing to worry about.


Tom,

  Thank you for the information.  By the way, the other straight post to the left is another antenna post.  Usually 3 wire antannes were run forward, but I think only two were run aft.

[Tom Bowser]

The T post on the Drum was most likely set in a socket originally but when they replace the wood deck with steel channel they put it right over the sockets, the park hasn't tried to preserve originalality for some time so We are going back and putting things right as we can. Thanks for the input on the other post. Let me know if you need more detailed info on anything.
Tom Bowser

[Mark Sarsfield]

Roger that.  We'll let you know if we need anymore close-up photos of a particular item.

[Rick]

Mark S.

Believe it or not,  I have been following this.  I think we need to take a closer look at the Batfish to verify some of this data.  I am running into some descrepancies that do not make sense to me....

[Mark Sarsfield]

What have you discovered that is not making much sense?