If they're *terribly* bad, you can always use wet-or-dry sandpaper to clean them. My radio club is located right on the main channel in the Los Angeles Harbor, and that's what we had to do 4 or 5 years ago when we took our big Mosley HF antenna down to refurb it. Used the sandpaper on the worst parts of it, and followed up with lots of steel wool, ScotchBrite, and elbow grease. We paid special attention to all the joints on the boom and elements, and added extra screws to hold them together. When we had it all back together we applied several coats of marine varnish to it, although there are other paints that will work as well. One of the club members is a "boat guy", and he had plenty of the varnish, so that's what we used. And don't forget to use some anti-oxidant compound when you put it back together.
Jim KQ6EA
--- On Thu, 7/9/09, w6zkh@comcast.net w6zkh@comcast.net wrote:
From: w6zkh@comcast.net w6zkh@comcast.net Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Cleaning oxidation from antenna To: "amsat-bb" amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Thursday, July 9, 2009, 12:16 PM
Thanks for all for their suggestions. Tried Scotchbrite and 409, and it doesnt seem to do very well. Sofar the best I have found is an SOS pad, as it cleans and shines, plus takes out the little bumps of oxidation. The yagi's are KLM's which of course are abit dated. Not living in a coastal enviroment, I've never had to worry about oxidation like this before. This is not a "hurry up" project, so have time to do a good job, I hope. I'll keep working at it and also your suggestions.
John W6ZKH DM06
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