[Pete Higgins]

kenj66,

We went to my oldest son’s house yesterday for a BBQ & to watch fireworks. He’s retired also and it’s neat to finally be able to get together without day-off planning.

Should I find a mast clamp for the boom or is this simply not necessary?

My single 91XG stayed mounted to the top of my mast for a couple of years without any problem. I had it tilted up slightly to point at the visual horizon (the top of Box Springs mtn.) When I added my second 91XG below the first, the mast just passed through the single clamp, alongside the boom and extended up to the clamp on the top one. The top 91XG boom sat an inch or two above the mast. So, "simply not necessary".

...attaching the tilt bracket clamp at the top of the boom would give me 5 or six inches more elevation.

Yep, and that’s the way I’d do it, although I doubt the extra inches would make a measurable difference. That method does minimize degrading mast to director element interaction.

I have never seen one with no opening for the cable!

I’ve seen two, and they both came with my 91XG’s. I used an xacto knife to slice the end off so the opening was slightly smaller than my RG-6 to give it a snug fit and then installed the compression connector. If you’re using cable that already has the ends installed, I’d just attach one end to the antenna and wrap the connection with electrical tape to weather proof it. I start from an inch down the coax, overlapping wraps and continue up until I’ve covered the balun molded plastic extrusion. Then I generally pull a tie wrap tight over the electrical tape to keep the top wrap from unwrapping.