on 11/2/02 5:29 PM, K7LXC@aol.com at K7LXC@aol.com wrote:
>> Working at 90 feet on Rohn 25 with guys at 35 and 68 feet was just plain
>> nasty. Took every bit of mental teeth gritting I could muster to convince
>> myself I was not swinging into the ground.
>
> PUCKER FACTOR, AHOY!
>
> As you've seen, climbing is 90% mental.
You're right!
When we did my tower, we guyed it around 25 feet for the first set. The
next set was going to be at approximately the 50 foot level. The day we put
the top sections up, we had 2 excellent climbers and so I didn't need to go
up but rather stayed down and organized the ground crew. I was amazed at
the lean in the tower. One of the guys was like, "No big deal. It always
does that." So we had two guys up at 50 feet working. We put all the
antennas up (not any monster sized ones) and everything w/o those guy wires
being attached. They didn't want them in the way. It was fine.
I had to end up redoing the guy bracket though as we had put them on wrong.
So a couple weeks later, I released the top guys and climbed up myself. It
actually wasn't that bad. I was surprised frankly at how stable the Rohn
25 was. It was swaying a bit in the breeze, but I kept telling myself that
TWO guys had been up there already w/o the guys. It was fine.
The worst was when I had to redo the lower guy bracket. I felt the tower to
be a HECK of a lot more unstable with just the top set of guys. I have a
pinned base on a concrete pier, so there's no anchoring of the tower at the
base. I was very glad when we got the middle done.
There's pucker factor in anything w/tower work. Just depends on how much
for a particular task! :-)
73,
Jon
NA9D
ps: I have pics and even a short movie from the top of the tower if anyone
is interested
-------------------------------------
Jon Ogden
NA9D (ex: KE9NA)
Life Member: ARRL, NRA
Member: AMSAT, DXCC
http://www.qsl.net/ke9na
"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."
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