Hi Scott-
I have been working on this problem for some time. Normally I wouldn't take this problem to you because it's not exactly up your ally. It has to do with some antenna mounting hardware. If you can give me any direction at all with this thing, I'd really appreciate it.
I've been working on mounting a parabolic WiFi antenna on my van. It's a high gain setup using a parabolic antenna in conjunction with a BiQuad receiver. The antenna can be mounted pretty easily on a one inch piece of pipe.
What I want to do is orient a piece of pipe vertically. I can connect a piece of pipe to the van nearly vertically, but I can't get it quite vertically all the time. If the van isn't parked flat, the pipe won't be quite vertially.
What I need is some way to mount a pipe vertically from another piece of pipe that isn't quite vertical itself.
What I propose to do is use something I call an "Antenna Knuckle". I drew some pictures of it to show you what I mean.
The first picture is of two identical pieces held together by a bolt (not drawn in). The second picture is a more detailed drawing of one of the pieces. The idea is to stick the cylindrical pieces into the pipe. Then the two spherical pieces can be rotated so that the upper pipe will be nearly vertical. Then the bolt will be tightened down. The ridges in the inner halves of the spherical pieces will keep them from slipping. That way the pipes won't move relative to each other.
I showed a machinist these pictures and he said this kind of thing is called a "knuckle". You may have seen them on the car radio antennas in automotive stores. The spherical portion of the knuckles you see in the stores is usually not over one inch in diameter.
The parabolic antenna is pretty heavy so I think I need a knuckle of at least three inches in diameter.
Do you know of such a thing or do you know anyone who deals in such "antenna mounting hardware"?
