Does anyone know why US Tower now has a snow or ice warning on their
website?
http://www.ustower.com/subpages/ham-towers.php
Jim N7US
## I saw that snow and or ice warning on their site a few months ago. The
kicker is
the cables are under constant tension, even if the tower is cranked all the way
down !
At least with the tower nested, it will have minimal windload..with ice on
it..vs fully
extended..and ice on it.
## the cables on the hdx series are under constant tension, you have to treat
the tower
like a loaded gun at all times. IF I knew I was going to be hit with an ice
storm in XXX
hrs.... I would nest the tower, and slide some rectangular steel tubes just
below the
2nd section up from the base. And maybe the sectionS above that too. Then
lower
it a tiny bit more... so a bit of tension comes off the cables. You don't
want em
totally slack, or they might jump the pulleys.
## My guess is, it's some kind of legal disclaimer thing they cooked up. The
quality
control fellow from UST in Kansas phoned me the other morning, and tells me
the
cables have to be changed out every 3 years min....and that ALL the pulleys
have to
be changed out aprx every 2nd or 3rd cable change. He also insisted that
the
gear box oil is checked once per month...and changed out every 24 x months. [
it needs
6 x pints of Mobil oil SCH-634 synthetic oil, viscosity of 460] Both
threaded drive rods
have to be coated with bee's wax and not grease. All 6 x bearings have to
be pumped full
of grease on a regular basis. The big double roller chain requires normal
chain lube on a regular basis.
And the tower legs have to have bees wax on em..so the guides slide nice and
smooth. If you under fill
the gear box, it will run hot, if you overfill, it will blow seals. That's why
there is 3 x plugs on the
gearbox. Top one is the filler. The next one down the side ensures the
correct level, and is an overflow
port. The 3rd and lowest plug is the drain plug. Funny thing is the lowest
one, the drain plug..is well
above the bottom of the gearbox ! I think a suction / syphon is required to
get the last of the oil out. It also
requires a special flushing liquid to be used, after the oil is drained out.
Then you gotta siphon the flushing
liquid out the bottom,same as the oil. Bottom plug installed, middle plug
left out. New oil poured in the very
top. Fill till it starts coming out the middle, open plug, then stop and
install middle plug. The very top plug
also has a vent stacked above it.
That's what was told to me by several UST folks.
later......... Jim VE7RF
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|