On Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:12:13 -0500, "Mike Lucas"
wrote:

"What's the problem?" you say. Well, I'd like to use the inboard
sections of some 204BA elements for the driven element and the first,
close-spaced director.

Hi Mike,

I would say "have at it," but what has this got to do with clamps?

They cannot present any perturbation to the calculations that wouldn't
be lost in the fourth right most digit after the decimal point. Even
more un-compelling, modeling probably wouldn't get you any closer to
reality than the second right most digit after the decimal point.

There are too many confounding properties of earth, nearby objects,
and the usual variability in materials and construction to imagine you
are going to both model and build one right out of the box, so to
speak.

On the other hand, actually setting your mind to it and doing it is
merely a matter of planning and performance right down to the size of
the clamp nuts. This is nothing more than a geometrical description
using wire sections of various diameters. The clamp is a half turn of
a loop of a certain wire diameter, and the nut is merely a wider wire
short section along the straight part of that half loop. Getting it
to wrap around an even thicker wire (the boom), and pierce thick wires
(the elements) will be a trick, and you will soon discover that you
have violated at least one rule of the MANA engine (about proximity
of, or overlapping segments). Myself, I would simply make the boom of
a series of sections, where the clamp area has a slightly greater
diameter.

This exercise is useful to do once for the drill. You get to learn
what counts and what does not, and then keep only those lessons that
actually offer something that lifts above the background noise of
mathematical error.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC