The past few towers we have put up at W1CW/W1YL were put up with the
following lube job - worked well - we will be rewarded when they have to
come apart! This procedure was used on the tower that had to come down and
be replaced by:
110 ft of Rohn 55....we had an installer come in who had an electric winch
this was very cool...anyone who has one of these for sale should contact
me, I will sell my soul to the devil for one of these....awesome watching a
100 lb section of 55G go up without raising a bead of sweat, which is easy
to do in Florida!
The big trick: the legs are coated with antiseize compound, readily
available at automotive supply places like NAPA. Antiseize is a grease
which has powdered metal in it. It is normally used on surfaces which
mechanics do not want to bond together...i.e. it's a bond breaker. It
comes in nice little cans with a brush attached to the lid.
When the 55G went up we had visitors, there were a bunch of us including
WX9E and N0BSH - I think it was before they changed their calls this past
year, mebbe I am wrong, anyhow they were in the 'hood on their way to a
Hooters so they killed some time helping WC4E,W1CW and I put up the
tower....
We had the guy who sold us the tower on the tower, and we had a bunch of us
on the ground....making jokes about a notorious op's inability to copy you
when you called him in a contest, etc.....seems we all have experienced
same with this guy!
I got to throw the forward/reverse (up./down) switch and twist the variac
on the electric winch...coool job.....the winch had the brand name Braden
Winch on it.....soul available, hit the reply key DE5IL.
The crew of WX9E/N0BSH/W1CW/WC4E took turns doing the following....
1) attaching the carribeener/snap link on the end of the lift rope to the
upgoing section...
2) whacking the tower leg once the section was lifted to a vertical
position, to hopefully dislodge any chunks of crap that were up inside the
leg...
3) swabbing out the inside of the female end of the section going up with a
stick wrapped with a towel....
4) coating the inside of the female end of section with the antiseize -
note, if you try and put it on the male/upper end of the section it will
ultimately get all over someone's hands, the tower, who knows what else and
in short make a damn mess....so, by putting it on the inside of the leg it
is "no mess"
I would energize the winch to bring the section so its bottom was about
four or five feet off the ground and then stopped the motor - the cleaning
and greasing was done at this height......then I spun the variac and
watched the sections go up - these electric winches are a must - if DE5IL
doesn't respond to this message I had better hit lotto tomorrow.
Another neato trick we used this time, was that the installer had a pulley
up on top with him with a rope coming down to the ground - we helped him
boost the gin pole each time we went up another ten foot....boy, he had it
made - a minimum amount of physical labor needed - most of which was
supplied by the winch or one of us on the ground!
The lessons learned were:
1) Get an electric winch....awesome....this seems like a good investment
for a larger radio club...a joy to behold.
2) Have a bunch of guys come over so you can hang out and shoot the breeze,
plus go to Hooters afterwards, bring WX9E so he can get another T-shirt
autographed at yet another Hooters!
3) Grease it NOW, and when you take the tower down later you will thank
yourself - besides it makes it go together easier......which leads me to:
......as far getting bent, sections that is, I agree with 'LXC....use a
piece of pipe or even another tower section mated only on the offending leg
and use that as a lever to straighter the bent one........
For those situations up in the air - where gee it is almost aligned, just a
little more and it will mate, I use two tools....
1:
A rope and some big box wrenches.......huh - strange marriage you
say...well if you are into ropes you know where I am going....
For the leg(s) which are splayed (is that how this is spelled) out, they
can be brought in by taking a 1/2" or so diameter piece of rope and
wrapping it all the way around the three legs of the tower....get it hand
tight and tie a knot-, better yet have a piece of rope which you can use a
clevis on to open and close up the loop with....
Once the rope is around the legs take that long box wrench and use it to
tighten up the loop of rope - pass it through the rope and twist the wrench
- tightening the rope will bring the offending leg into
alignment...sometimes if it is a single leg which is problematic you can
get the other two legs started and then tightening the rope will give it
that last lil ummmph needed to bring the offendee into line!
2:
For inwardly mobile legs needing to be pushed out, the solution is $ 10.95
at the auto parts store....your basic bottle jack, a pneumatic car jack -
note these will sometimes not operate when the housing is in a given
orientation to the ground - simply rotate it a half turn if jacking it
produces no movement of the piston.
......if you have a leg which is pointing at the center of the tower rather
than towards one of the other legs, use a piece of lumber such as a 4X4 (or
other zone 20 material) across two "okay" legs and then you can place the
bottle jack directly opposite the offending leg, pushing against the center
of the Asiatic lumber.
3:
Prefit the tower on the ground..........sometimes called doing it right,
well:
If you are K1TO you prefit-ed all of your sections for both of your towers
when they were on the ground the week before you put things up, and then
proceed to label all the joints - Anal Retentive........no, Tango
Oscar......but damn that worked nice at his place....if you have the time
to do this, do it.
Well, N6ZZ wanted help, and whatever Phil wants, Phil Goetz.....
Heah towertalkians, its:
Less than a month til the Florida QSO Party!
73, see you in the FQP
Jim, K4OJ
Florida Contest Group - visit our website at:
http://www.4w.com/deemer/fcg.htm
What's an FQP? The Florida Contest Group is pleased to announce the
rebirth of the Florida QSO Party, check out the FQP website@:
http://home1.gte.net/wd4ahz/fcg/ssqp.htm
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