>Hello Towertalk folks.
>
>This is a problem that has been addressed to this group before, by me,
>and I'm still having LOTS of problems with it. Here's the problem and
>what I've tried.
>
>Problem:
>Cables on US Tower TX-472 motorized crank up tower get tangled in th
>coax arms, get hung up on the tower, get tangled in the wind, and are
>generally a nusiance when the tower is lowered (most of the time). It
>is such a problem that EVERY time the tower is raised, there is some
>sort of failure with the cable bundle.
>
>Here's what's on the tower:
>F-12 C4S at top of tower, 2 80M dipoles mounted on crossarm at top of
>tower, Yaesu G-800SDX rotor, Ameritron 5 position coax switch. So
>there's one coax that goes up the tower (RG-8X for it's flexability) and
>two six wire control cables. All three of these cables are bundled
>together.
>
>Here's what I've tried:
>Hooking cables on each coax arm so they loop down when the tower is
>lowered. Due to winds and cable twist cables became a tangled mess that
>got hooked on everything.
>Hooking cable only to top coax arm, modifying other coax arms to have
>large loops to contain cable, and letting excess coil on ground when
>tower not in use. Works great, except tower has been lowered from CQWW
>in October until just this weekend when I was goin to raise up the tower
>in preperation for ARRL SSB. When I went to raise the tower and I did
>all my checks, I noticed that the control cable for the switch box was
>broken at the inline connector (the control box has a pigtail on it for
>ease of testing etc). Also noticed that the top coax arm is bent down
>about 10 degrees. Just from the weight of 20 feet of cable my stress
>relief loop has pulled through, and the wieght of th cables bent th coax
>arm.
>
>Here's my question. WHAT WORKS! I'm almost ready to take this huge
>piece of scrap metal and throw it away, write it off on my taxes as a
>loss, and put up a guyed tower (I know I know, don't start).
>
>In all seriousness, the tower is here to stay (parental restrictions on
>a guyed tower) so how do I make it work for me. Thanks!
>--
>Al, KE1FO, ex. KE6BER mailto:ke1fo@contesting.com or ke6ber@tiac.net
>Check out my web page, http://www.tiac.net/users/ke6ber for summaries
>from the contest reflector and a growing list of amateur radio links.
First, I would go with a guyed tower . . . and I have to wonder about
parents who would not INSIST on the safest tower for their kids . . .
Anyway, since you are stuck with a crank up, here is what I would do:
1. With the tower cranked down, pull all of your cables out of the shack
and lay them in a line on the ground below the tower.
2. Unbundle all of the cables so each one lies on the ground unattached to
the others.
3. Take each cable and make sure it has no tendency to curl up on its own.
Untwist it so it just lies there on the ground nice and straight.
4. With all of the twist out of the cables, bundle them again.
5. Make sure your coax arms are staggered around the tower such that a
cable loop hanging from two of them does not touch another cable loop. When
the tower is down, each cable loop should be hanging in the clear on one
side of the tower away from the other loops.
The loops should hang straight and untwisted if you have done a good job of
untwisting them on the ground and they should not intertwine or interfere
with each other as the tower is raised. I would attach the cables to each
coax arm to keep the full weight off the one on top. This should keep it
from bending in the future.
This may take a few hours but should be worth the trouble.
Good luck and let us know how it works for you.
Stan w7ni@teleport.com
--
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