Terry Dunlap wrote:
> Those certainly sound like good rules to me but I'm still in the dark about
> safe alternatives. Do you crank the tower all the way down and use an
> extension ladder to reach the mast/rotor/antennas? Do you still block the
> tower when using a ladder and if so how do you safely block it before using
> a ladder???
I use an extention ladder while the tower is "fully retracted". I lower
the
tower as far as the limit switch will allow, then I place the ladder on
the
lowest section, and never on any of the higher ones for fear it may put
a
wierd strain on the cable etc and casue the tower to shift. I do not
block
the tower when I'm doing this kind of work. (probably should though)
Then I
climb the ladder to work on boom/mast connection, switch box, feed line
checks, etc. If I have to do anything that requires touching the tower
sections themselves or reachign inside the sections (i.e. rotor work,
tightening u-bolts on boom for inverted V's or the switchbox) I tilt the
tower
over and then I put a large 12x12 beam that is about 5 feet tall under
the
tower to take th strain off the raising fixture. Then I extend the
sections
out enough to work on the rotor and block the sections so they won't
slide
back.
That's my method, anybody else have any hints, suggestions, criticisms?
--
Al, KE1FO, ex. KE6BER mailto:ke1fo@contesting.com or ke6ber@tiac.net
Check out my web page, http://www.tiac.net/users/ke6ber for summaries
from the contest reflector and a growing list of amateur radio links.
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: K7LXC@contesting.com
Sponsored by Akorn Access, Inc & N4VJ / K4AAA
|