I have let BX type towers just free fall with no damage. Of course they did
not fall on the ground but instead into a good layer of snow.
Doug
"Think of all the ways you can hurt yourself laughing."
-----Original Message-----
The point on water pipe is well made, but pipe should never be used
where strength is involved. Yah, I know there's a lot of it in use, but
pipe is soft and bends far, far easier than structural steel tube of the
same size. It's also heavy for the strength. Tower sections are by far
the strongest for the weight, but you want the load on all legs, not
just two..
It shouldn't be used for masting either, but probably over half the
installations out there use it.
If pipe is used for a mast to give a big tribander a few more feet and
it bends, how do you get the antenna down?
We let one down yesterday (40' steel, not terribly heavy) from the W end
of my shop, with a novel approach, (N8ERFs idea. Thanks Dennis) at
least to me. There was a pulley at the top of the tower. We ran a rope
through a snatch block at the base, up through the pulley at the top and
back about a 100' to the SE to an anchor. There were also two guys held
by two hams. The rope ran NW from the pulley at the base of the tower
to three wraps snubbed around a 10" diameter Spruce tree. The guys at
the tree just slowly let the rope out while those to the SE helped keep
the load light.Other than a bit of a communications problem (the shop
was between the two groups so they could not see each other.)
73
Roger (K8RI)
---
This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection
is active.
http://www.avast.com
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|