hi,
on my tx-472 i tie off the bundle of coax and cables to the top coax arm as
many have said. i do use a homebrew rope kellum tieoff on the bundle just
after it passes down through the top coax support, to keep the weight of the
coax off the larger 90 degree bend the coax takes to go horizontal to the rotor
slack.
i then route the bundle through the lower coax arms, again as many of said.
this really works well.
what i might do different is at the lower coax arm that is about 21' up.
coming up from the bottom i have pre-measured the total coax length needed when
the tower is fully extended. i then went ahead and tied off the bundle of coax
and cables to the bottom section tower leg (and made sure it did not get in the
way of the inner tower sections going up and down) to the lower coax arm.
now the tough part to explain. i did another homebrew kellum tie off just
above the lower coax arm. yes above. the key is, now when i retract the tower
the coax coming down loops toward the ground from the then back up to the lower
coax arm. then over and into the lower coax arrm. i did work at it a little
to be sure this 180 the coax takes at the lower coax arm stays a large sweeping
180 not to damage the coax.
what is nice is i can almost totally retract the tower and not have any coax on
the ground. fully retracted i may have 15' or so, but it is not much and very
easily managed. many times when i retract due to winds coming i may leave it
about the 30' mark or so, just where the loop of coaxs touch the ground. it is
neater. i do stop it at a slightly different spot each time, so the cable
doesn't take a set or flatten on the pullys, that might happend if you stop at
the same place each time.
one disadvantage however. if you stop the tower in the middle for what ever
reason, then the big loop can swing in the wind some. i just have a very small
nylon cord that i loop it up over the big coax loop and tie it off. not a big
deal and if you only operate fully extended or fully retracted, this is not
needed.
73 & soft landings, jay, wa0www> ------------------------------> Date: Wed, 9
Apr 2008 20:15:40 EDT> From: K7LXC@aol.com> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Routing
Coax on a Crank Up Tower> To: towertalk@contesting.com, willemma@telkomsa.net>
Message-ID: <bcd.25b94f42.352eb62c@aol.com>> Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="US-ASCII"> > > In a message dated 4/9/2008 1:28:38 P.M. Pacific
Daylight Time, > towertalk-request@contesting.com writes:> > > Since I started
erecting my tower I have requested advice from this group> and received
excellent guidance. > > You came to the right place!> > > Now the tower is up
and I need advice on> how to rout the coax on a crack Up Tower. When lowering
the tower what is> the neatest and safest way to route the coax so that when
extending the> tower the coax will easily "unwind" again. I am hoping for some
good ideas> as I could not come up with a single one - hi! > > > My preferred
method is to tape the bundle of cables every foot or so > into one bund
le. Secure the cables from the rotator and down the mast to a > rotation loop
to the top-most coax standoff. Then have the cable bundle run thru > the
subsequent standoffs to act as guides on the way up and down. The cable >
bundle will coil onto the ground as it come down and the reverse is true as >
well. Some guys like to collect the cable bundle into something; e.g. garbage >
can, big fishing net, kiddie's swimming pool. > > An alternative is to secure
the bundle to each standoff. This > necessitates a lot of farting around
running the tower up and down to get the lengths > right and IMO doesn't buy
you much. > > The even more important aspect of this question is to ALWAYS BE
STANDING > AT THE TOWER WHENEVER IT IS IN MOTION! A cable can catch on
something, > something can break. If you're not watching it with the kill
switch within easy > reach and you're not watching it, you're courting
disaster. > > Love those crack up towers. > > Cheers,> Steve K7LXC> TOWER TECH
-> Pr
ofessional tower services for hams> Cell:206-890-4188>
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