Do you plan on having a professional company provide a climber and or
crane when you do any tweaking or tuning on the antenna. Maybe you will
be lucky and the antenna will be just perfect after careful assembly and
never have a problem (Optibeams have a good reputation for structural
integrity.) So what about maintenance? Rotators don't rotate maint
free forever. Then there is inspection/repair/renewal of coax, at least
the "flexi-loop" at the rotator even if it never snags catastrophically.
Will you be calling a pro to intervene in any/all of these or will, you
do your own climbing, risking leaving a widow and orphans?
Maybe the above involve tradeoffs to consider when comparing and
contrasting guyed vs unguyed. Neither approach is a free lunch. Free
standing tilt-over towers of the same height and load capacity in dead
weight and windage have more moving parts and require more
inspection/potential maintenance but you can safely tilt the tower and
do the work yourself with your boots on the ground. It is a sort of
good news/bad news story. With a tilt over free stander you can do your
own maint standing safely on the ground, the good news. The bad news
is there is more maint required.
If you have the real estate, the approval of your wife for guys and
anchors, and the budget to hire all the climbing/crane work done,
including ongoing inspections
preventative maint etc. there is no reason to select a tilt-over free
stander. If you intend to do your own tower work then safety for the
head of the family is a 600lb gorilla in the room, hard to ignore.
I have a tilt tower with two sections. The bottom section is guyed and
hinged well above ground so releasing one guy allows it to be tilted
nicely without falling derricks, gin poles, or helpers. I have a
Tashjian free standing tilt tower on order. This and the above tower
use appliances to keep the antenna from hitting the ground when tilting
down to access the antenna with your boots on the ground, no ladder
required. The "magic" appliances are NN4ZZ products, a TiltPlate and
its equivalent for a hex beam.
The largest TiltPlate will accommodate the big Optibeam. I'm using it
with the SteppIR DB42 (250 lbs) and the prop pitch rotator at 50 lbs
plus a couple cast iron pillow block bearings plus mast etc. Without the
TiltPlate or equivalent you can't lower the beam down low enough to work
on the antenna, rotator, or whatever without a tall ladder which
reintroduces the safety concern. With the TiltPlate you can put the
tower top equipment at a comfortable working height. I typically prefer
about chest high.
None of the above is intended to challenge the macho guyed tower
climbers with 12 kids. You guys are truly supermen, a cut above and are
not intended recipients of the information or opinions above. I am a
mere mortal commenting on a couple factors which might be of interest to
other mere mortals, nothing of interest for you supermen.
Patrick NJ5G
I plan on having a professional company do the install.
First, a copy of UP THE TOWER - The Complete Guide To Tower
Construction is an excellent source of many answers to tower
installation. Available from _www.championradio.com_
(http://www.championradio.com) .
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