In a message dated 4/2/2005 9:34:37 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
towertalk-request@contesting.com writes:
> If you have clear lateral room out to at least 200 feet (more is better), it
would be fairly simple to tram the entire antenna down for repair, then
ascent back to the top.
Huh?!? This is a big heavy OFF-BALANCE antenna and there's not going to
be anything SIMPLE about it. One guy - or even two - up on the tower has very
little leverage to use in wrestling with the antenna. I work on towers
professionally and I'm not sure how I'd accomplish this without the assistance
of a
crane. Sorry, Bill. Even using a crane will produce a fairly high 'pucker
factor'.
> The clear area would best be between two guys,
although I have heard of using one of the guy wires for the tram. I have a
large Yagi at 152 feet that needs repair. It will be trammed down 1/4 EHS
anchored about 200 feet from the tower base between two guys.
Do you mean use a guy under the antenna to slide the antenna down? This
is not a tram system. A tram has the load UNDER the single tramline. If the
load is on top of the line(s) it's a trolley system. I use the tram technique
all
the time and it works FB (when loads are balanced). The trolley system OTOH
is an incredible PITA (WAY too much friction, not easy getting the 2 lines
equalized, load hard to balance on the lines, etc.) and I don't recommend using
it
unless there's no other way to do it.
I had one of these KLM 4L 40M antennas for a number of years and it was
WAY too fragile - something broke on it every year in the middle of contest
season and it was useless from then on. Then I had to get a crew in every
summer
to help get it down and put it back up. Yuck. I sold it and bought a 2L CC
402CD and to be honest I don't think I gave anything away in terms of
performance
- the KLM never did play like a big monobander should have. And I didn't have
to repair the CC every year!
Cheers,
Steve K7LXC
TOWER TECH -
Professional tower service for commercial and amateur
Cell: 206-890-4188
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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