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[TowerTalk] Cables on US Tower crankup

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Subject: [TowerTalk] Cables on US Tower crankup
From: ke1fo@contesting.com (Alfred J. Frugoli)
Date: Sun, 01 Mar 1998 22:25:43 +0000
Hello Towertalk folks.

This is a problem that has been addressed to this group before, by me, 
and I'm still having LOTS of problems with it.  Here's the problem and 
what I've tried.

Problem:
Cables on US Tower TX-472 motorized crank up tower get tangled in th 
coax arms, get hung up on the tower, get tangled in the wind, and are 
generally a nusiance when the tower is lowered (most of the time).  It 
is such a problem that EVERY time the tower is raised, there is some 
sort of failure with the cable bundle.  

Here's what's on the tower:
F-12 C4S at top of tower, 2 80M dipoles mounted on crossarm at top of 
tower, Yaesu G-800SDX rotor, Ameritron 5 position coax switch.  So 
there's one coax that goes up the tower (RG-8X for it's flexability) and 
two six wire control cables.  All three of these cables are bundled 
together.  

Here's what I've tried:
Hooking cables on each coax arm so they loop down when the tower is 
lowered.  Due to winds and cable twist cables became a tangled mess that 
got hooked on everything.  
Hooking cable only to top coax arm, modifying other coax arms to have 
large loops to contain cable, and letting excess coil on ground when 
tower not in use.  Works great, except tower has been lowered from CQWW 
in October until just this weekend when I was goin to raise up the tower 
in preperation for ARRL SSB.  When I went to raise the tower and I did 
all my checks, I noticed that the control cable for the switch box was 
broken at the inline connector (the control box has a pigtail on it for 
ease of testing etc).  Also noticed that the top coax arm is bent down 
about 10 degrees.  Just from the weight of 20 feet of cable my stress 
relief loop has pulled through, and the wieght of th cables bent th coax 
arm.  

Here's my question.  WHAT WORKS!  I'm almost ready to take this huge 
piece of scrap metal and throw it away, write it off on my taxes as a 
loss, and put up a guyed tower (I know I know, don't start).  

In all seriousness, the tower is here to stay (parental restrictions on 
a guyed tower) so how do I make it work for me.  Thanks!
-- 
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.

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