WOW!
Yesterday the crane came, and 4 hours later (including travel time) I've
got a Trylon T500 (72') and a Force12 C31XR sitting pretty!
Learned some lessons, tho...
The crane did a great job of putting the tower up. It was a 100' 35 ton
monster with an absolute master of a driver. He picked it up with long
straps and hovered it over the base section sticking out of the ground.
>From his perch he was able to make the minutest adjustments for us
as we wrestled with the legs and bolts. That took about 15 minutes or
so.
The real excitement was with the beam. Get a boom truck - not a
crane!
The crane came with a bucket - a steel box with cables in all four
corners that meet up above your head at the hook. We strapped
2x4's thru the sides of the bucket like a fork life and set the beam
on them with the mast bracket facing out. It took us two tries to get
me up to the mast without spinning around too much - you have no
control over the spin! Kind of gives me a sense of what astronauts
have to deal with...
Once up there, it was a bit of a struggle to get the mounting plates
together. Force12 does a good job with sturdy mounting plates that
attach to the mast and the boom and join up with several bolt holes.
They have a pilot bolt that sticks out from the mast to make it easier.
It does, but it really needs to be longer.
Anyway, I spent about an hour in the bucket at the top of the tower
but it is up and looks great!
Next trip up this weekend I'll dress up the coax on the tower, make
sure the beam elements are level and point it north!
I'm on my way!
BTW, I've been keeping a 'chronology' of the whole process and taking
lots of pictures. I eventually plan to put up a site like KA9FOX's
(which has been a big help). I'll try to include lots of detail about the
construction, etc.
73!
Brian N8WRL
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