[Michael_Bibby (Michael)]

Just a quick update on what I ended up doing. I had to scrap my original plan of using a round bin because the scope would have hit the base plate, so I instead used a bin from K-mart that has a rectangular footprint so that it is large enough to cover the mount but doesn't protrude too much on the east and west side of the pier. This is pretty much water tight. I then made a shade cover out of coreflute with a pvc bend joint to allow some air circulation. So far its worked well: the mount stays nice and dry, and doesn't get hot. Don't know if I will really need to go to the extent of installing a solar powered fan to help circulate the air. The coreflute cover is a bit flimsy and so I'll probably end up rebuilding it properly out of plywood and fashion it in the shape of a TARDIS (I'm really wedded to that idea!). I'll add some 'tie down' system of some sort to further secure the covers to the base plate.