“A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.” Catherine the Great is quoted as saying so. Perhaps she’d set up a remote broadcast or two in her time.
Doug Amacker is vice president and general manager of the Oxford Media Group including WBZK(FM) in Oxford, Miss. Wind brought him headaches during remote broadcasts because the feet of his pop-up tent could not be secured to asphalt or concrete. So Doug came up with the idea pictured here.
Buy yourself some empty paint cans and a bag of Quikrete or similar brand concrete mix at Lowes or Home Depot.
Your tent legs probably have a hole in each flat metal foot, visible in the second photo; but if not, create them with your trusty drill.
Then select four bolts to match the holes in the mounting feet. The bolts should be 4 to 5 inches long. Cover the last inch of the threads with electrical tape or with Vaseline or other petroleum jelly, to prevent the concrete from getting into the “business end” threads of the bolt.
Fill each paint can with your Quikrete and sink the bolt, threads up, into the concrete. Make sure the bolt is centered and vertical, and that only an inch or so protrudes from the concrete. If you like, you can thread several nuts and fender washers along the length of the bolt to expand the anchor’s surface area set in the concrete.
Set the buckets aside and let the mixture harden for at least a week.
Then for your next remote, after you’ve set up your tent, you can lift each leg onto the bolt-in-the-bucket. Use a wingnut and a fender washer to secure the leg to its new stand. Then let those winds blow!
They got the angle “right”
What’s more satisfying than a tidy wiring installation? It’s in our DNA as radio engineers.
Frequent contributor Dan Slentz found that company Show Me Cables has released a variety of right-angle RJ-45 patch cables. These are shielded Cat-6A and come in your choice of seven colors.
Patch cord lengths are from 12 inches up to 20 feet. Dan notes that these could come in handy in a data center or a radio studio that uses today’s popular AoIP systems using RJ-45 cabling for their wiring. They can be ordered directly from the website.
Workbench submissions are encouraged and qualify for SBE recertification credit. Email johnpbisset@gmail.com.
