I realize, mine is a single instance. Even in my 60s I was in better
shape than many close to half my age, climbing towers and flying
airplanes..
I put up a second guyed tower. A good, sturdy, 100', 45G with
occasional help of local hams serving as gofers, or pulling on the rope
to the gin pole. In days gone by, I did maintenance on a couple of
systems. The 45G was rock solid and the old, skinny tower was beginning
to appear a little less than straight, so I took it down. I was happy
with the big array on the 45G, but a flock of cormorants decided to use
my 7L C3i 6-meter Yagi @ 115 feet (give or take) as an overnight stop.
They broke the boom truss, which fell down on the driven element of the
TH-5.
Then low and behold. Nature threw me a curve and I could no longer
climb. By the time I found someone to take the big array down the Th-5
was in serious need of lot of TLC. I used Phillystran for a new boom
truss on the 6-meter Yagi. Let's see those big birds stand on that<:-)
The 100' 45G is still standing, but it only serves to support half wave
slopers on 75 and 40, with a half sloper on 160.
There are many good reasons for installing a guyed tower and many for
installing a crank up and fold over. There are probably just as many
reasons not to install one either.
The majority...Majority? Perhaps I should say, "most" hams I know and
hams I see at swaps, should never set foot on a tower for their sake and
in many instances, the tower's sake. I wonder if they ever heard of
exercise and a good healthy diet.
In both types of tower the question is, "Will it meet the ham's needs"
and can he/she maintain it properly, or have connections that can get it
done.
I added a crank up, fold over LM-470 as the most likely candidate for
getting the tribander up.
I might even stick another Diamond, or Comet duobander on top.
A crank up and fold over for a given height and antenna wind area, is
larger, much heavier has a lot of moving parts and requires one
humongous chunk of concrete for a base compared to a guyed tower.
However the XYL might prefer the expense to having guy anchors around
the yard.
I enjoyed climbing and figured I'd be climbing for decades
73
Roger (K8RI)
On 7/2/2015 6:40 PM, Big Don wrote:
Before summarily blowing off a guyed configuration, it would be worth
browsing thru the TowerTalk Archives for all the problems folks have had
with winches, cables, pulleys, coax pinches/tangles/fatigue, sections
jammiing, including unhappy motor electronics (today's stuff).
http://lists.contesting.com/_towertalk/
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