I had a similar problem after the Hurricane came through North
Carolina this spring. The Hurricane carried a tree backwards onto a guy
wire, taking my out-back 100 ft tower down. The weight of the tree
collapsed the tower at 40 ft, taking the stack over into the top of
another tree. It was just above the reach of bucket trucks available,
and too many guy wires from the front tower to get a crane in.
Solution:
I begged/borrowed 5 sections of 25G. I put three together, with
a flat base on the bottom, and three good heavy ropes at the 30 ft level
to use as guys. Three of us stood this up, and we tied things off at
good reliable tie points. Then I went up, and put the other two
sections up, giving me 50 ft of altitude. I could tighten or loosen
guys to position the tower where ever I needed it, and started
dismantling the tower from the top down. It was tiring work, as things
were binding from laying sideways in the tree, but I got everything down
in a couple days. I had 5 el on 6m at the top, then 5 ele on 12/17 from
old TH6 parts(common driven element with modified 10m coils), then 2 el
on 40 (KLM), with 2 el on 30m interlaced on the boom (using 40m
Cushcraft coils).
For information, the 6m was totally broke up, the reflector was
messed up on the WARC beam, and the plastic boom/mast assembly on the
reflector was in dozens of pieces. I had to straighten some of the
aluminum on the 30/40 beam. I have the 30/40 back up at a new QTH, and
will do the 12/17 soon.
73's de Stephen, K0SD in NC
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-towertalk@contesting.com
|