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Re: [TowerTalk] heights

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] heights
From: Cqtestk4xs@aol.com
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:58:08 EDT
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
 
In a message dated 8/12/2008 4:20:45 PM Greenwich Standard Time,  
rca@rcallen.com writes:

Owen,  K3CB, has had several total failures with his Heights crankups 
but, other  than a few complaints about rattling noises, the foldovers 
seem to all be  doing fine.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
I sent a reply to the original poster of the question, but figured I needed  
to make sure others know some of the issues related to aluminum towers and the 
 foldover mechanisms associated with them.
 
I personally used four of them (Heights and Universal) and one problem  
common to all of them is the egging of the holes where they are bolted  
together.  
This egging is caused by the flexing of the joint in the wind  and gets 
progressively worse, leading to an increases sloppiness of the  joint.  
Tightening 
the bolt does help a little, but the aluminum distorts  with more tightening 
also, and the egging continues, especially in high wind  areas.  Climbing these 
things is, uh....exciting.  I like to call them  flexible fliers.
 
The second issue is getting the damn sections apart.  Sometimes they  are 
impossible to get apart in the air OR on the ground....totally frozen.   I have 
bought them from guys that way and had it happen to me.  Nothing,  and I mean 
using all the tricks of the trade to get them apart worked.   Oxidation is a 
pain, much worse than on the steel towers.  I used lithium  grease on the 
joints 
when installing and this did help on later  installations
 
Third issue.  I los two of these towers, both by the foldover  devices.  One 
involved a totally rotting rotting away of the base stubs in  less than five 
years.  The second involved using the winch which was  provided by the company. 
 The winch failed internally, freewheeling out  cable and I lost 72 feet of 
tower, a mast, rotor and a very expensive  antenna.
 
Would I buy or erect any aluminum tower again...not unless I got it almost  
free, didn't have to climb it and was only gong to use it to hold wires.
 
YMMV.
 
73 Bill KH7XS/K4XS
 
 



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