de Joe, aa4nn
> how abt some note from the
> rest of you, and what you are doing/planning on doing this summer???
>
Crank down the 89-ft US Tower, check antennas, connectors & switch
boxes. Repair 30m dipole. Attach a yard arm to support the 160m Inv L
wire cage which is now suspended from a catenary line. Will bury radials
for the Inv L at its new location as I re-work the yard for new grass.
Also
looking at a rotatable flag. Re-align the 160m Inv V.
Speaking of US Tower. Mine is now six years old. The cable and pulleys
look unharmed and the only rust I can see is on the base support
brackets.
The aging process might begin to accelerate. So I have a question...
When fully extended a tower section telescopes into the next lower
section by about four feet. What could be wrong if I made up some
lengths of chain to support the tower sections. The support mechanism
would consist of a turnbuckle with some chain off each end and then
a hook at the ends of each chain. The idea is to put a hook into the top
of an outside section leg and hook the other end into the bottom of
the inside, telescoped section's leg. Tightening the turnbuckle to the
point of barely relaxing the crank-up cable should support the tower ok.
Heavy duty equipment and a support mechanism for each of the three
tower legs at the four telescoped sections. Twelve chains in all.
The TX-489 weighs 1590 pounds. Supporting the entire tower would
call for a support chain to bear 530 pounds. The bottom section alone
probably weighs about 400 pounds, making the bottom section chains
bear about 400 pounds each, supporting the remaining 1190 pounds.
That ain't much. Or is it ? Am I crazy to even be thinking about
this ?
Having seen my tower wobble back and forth in gusty winds calls
for a support chain to bear more than the equally distributed weight.
A US Tower rep sez he never heard of this idea, but he is going to
call me back with the weight of each tower section.
Any thoughts ? Would this make a crank-up tower climbable?
73, de Joe Blackwell, aa4nn
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