Steve et al:
When I was in charge of a small group of engineers and technicians who had
design, installation and maintenance responsibility for government electronics
systems, we always followed a motto we created: "Design for maintenance." We
inherited a set of equipment racks where access was difficult due to short
leads on connecting cables (minimized initial costs, I suppose) and no thought
seemed to be given to heat dissipation or future removal for maintenance.
FYI: I've got a quick-disconnect connector set at the top of the rotator
cable run underneath the TailTwister. The entire thing can be removed through
the hole in the rotator plate.
73 de
Gene Smar AD3F
-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of k7lxc---
via TowerTalk
Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2021 12:53 PM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] WTF resolved and lessons to be learned
Howdy, TowerTalkians -
I recently posted a problem I was having with a T2X install which was too
big for the HG-55 tower it had come out of and I couldn't see any way why it
had worked for the previous 5 years with an apparently fatal problem. When
originally installed (I didn't do it), they ran into the same problem. Their
solution was to capture the mast with the Yaesu thrust bearing and allowing
enough room to install the rotator on the mast so that it was in a position to
avoid the contact with the diagonal braces. THEN they brought up the non-welded
rotor plate and attached it to the rotator so the plate is floating and not
taking any vertical weight. All it's doing is keeping the rotator in place and
counter-acting the rotational torque and the entire apparatus is held up by the
TB. Well, it worked but what a PITA because you're working in 3 dimensions
and only have 2 hands. Usually the last thing I do for an install is align the
antenna. There wasn't the chance to do that as everything
was floating and we had to do the best we could and then calibrate the actual
heading with the adjustable meter excursion on the control box. WHEW - I was
glad to get this taken care of. The job could have been made easier if
they'd have used some sort of quick disconnect for the cables as this was
something else that complicated the job since they had used the original
terminal strips AND barely left enough slack to secure the control cable.
Nothing was easy on this job. One of my criticisms is that most installs
are done with little regard to possible (probable?) repairs in the future. The
repairs can be easy or difficult depending on how much thought goes into the
job. The same can be said for various tower appurtenances such as weather
station devices and lighting. They just make things more difficult. I'm just
saying - hi. So it wasn't a poltergeist after all. Yes, a little
disappointing but all's well that ends well! Cheers & climb safe,Steve
K7LXCTOWER TECH
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