radio aerial (antenna) won't stay in position
 

"john zeiss" wrote in message
...
We have a small portable sony radio, and it has the usual type of
extendable aerial (antenna) that you get on small japanese radios.

It now refuses to maintain its position at an *angle*. Slowly but surely
it drops down until it reaches the horizontal position.

The small screw has been tightened up, but even as tight as we think we
can
do it without stripping the slots in the screw head, it is not enough to
*clamp* the aerial to stop it dropping down.

Basically the aerial at its base is a square shape with one small bronze
coloured washer each side of it and that all sits in a ' U ' shaped base
with it all being clamped with a small screw.

Are there any tricks you know of, to get it to behave? Thanks.

It used to be OK, right? What may have changed is that the mating pieces
have been polished by repeated movement and they are now quite slick and
smooth.

If so, you take them apart and rough up the mating surfaces. This restores
what one of my witty friends called "stiction," a combination of "sticky"
and "friction."

I have some dental picks that I might use for scratching the smooth surfaces
to restore the lost stiction. A large sewing needle or the tip of a steak
knife could work, too. Sandpaper wrapped around the tip of a nail file? An
Emory board?