In a message dated 96-06-23 17:04:53 EDT, you write:
All went fine until the beam arrived
>at the tower, but the <driver didn't know that and kept hauling---the
tractor
>noise was higher than the <screams.
If you fly with turkeys you will never be mistaken for an eagle..... (old
indian proverb)
I'm in total agreement with Stan when it is just a bunch of guys getting
together to put something up... There are situations and loads that call for
power winching and it can be done safely if a few guidelines are observed,
and if the person on the tower and the person running the power are used to
working together...
The antennas I have put up are too big/high for hand pulling with a small
crew... I use my John Deere B to pull with which, of course, has enough
power to totally destroy things...
I communicate only with the one person on the tower that I trust, Ken, N8GAN
- and vice versa.... We have hand signals agreed upon, so that noise is not a
factor, and only Ken signals to me... From the tower he can see and hear
everyone, so he is my eyes and ears... We route the pull rope back out next
to the tram line (not directly under the beam)... the rope is pulled from the
front of the tractor, i.e. I'm backing up with the tractor as we raise the
beam... this way I can see both the beam as it trams up, just to the side of
me, and the tower crew at the same time... We pull SLOWLY... I will pull the
beam about 30 feet up, then set the brakes on the tractor and get off and
feel the pull rope, inspect everything in general, walk to the tower and and
have a conversation with Ken, poll the ground crew for problems, etc... this
is repeated again when the beam is about 10 feet from the tower... during the
pulling, each time the tractor gets to the end of the pulling area the pull
rope is clamped off by the ground crew and the tractor moved forward and
re-hitched... it may take 20 minutes to get the beam to the top of the
tower... this is ok... it gives everyone time to watch the lines and pulleys
carefully as the lift is going on, and no one is so exhausted from pulling
that they miss something...
Cheers ... Denny
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