At 04:22 PM 1/27/99 -0600, you wrote:
Hi Lou!
As one who has already been through this dilemma, let me offer one
small piece of advice: DON'T DO IT! When Rohn states that this series of
self-supporting tower should not be used with antennas with boom lengths
over 10ft they mean it!
I tried it with a KT34XA a few years back with disasterous results.
Luckily, I only lost a tower and a few antennas. With antennas with long
boom lengths, the twisting motion created on the tower is enormous.... much
greater than the tower can withstand. I attempted to counteract this by
mounting the rotor plate at the 12ft level, in a section of the tower that
is MUCH more substantial that the top section where they supply you the
rotor plate. I ran 40ft of HD 2" pipe up the center of the tower and
virtually (or so I thought) eliminated the twisting problem. I also guyed
the tower in three spots to further strengthen the whole set up.
I offer, as proof of my statements, the following two photos that
were taken for insurance purposes:
http://www.probe.net/~beakers/tower1.jpg
http://www.probe.net/~beakers/tower2.jpg
If these do not convince you to "Do what the manufacturer says," nothing
will. I would not want to see anyone go through what I did this past year.
BTW, the tower was hit by 104 mph straight-line winds from the South. I have
since replaced it with 90ft of Rohn 45g properly guyed and anchored, per
Rohn's book.
Good Luck!!
Chuck Sudds KØTVD
Missouri Valley, Iowa USA
Heartland DX Association http://ns1.qsl.net/hdxa/
http://www.probe.net/~csudds/ or
http://www.probe.net/~beakers/
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