Denny, I am so sorry to hear about this. I would hate making that discovery
about my place. I'm sure it's only a matter of time. Thanks for the
reality check that we don't retain full personal control of our
installations and that just because we would trust our own lives to our own
engineering and mechanical competence, doesn't mean that's what we're doing
when we start climbing.
Sobering.
Mark, N5OT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dennis OConnor" <ad4hk2004@yahoo.com>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006 7:30 AM
Subject: [TowerTalk] Turnbuckles
>I wandered up the North tower Friday to drop some 80 meter antennas to be
>replaced with new designs... From about the 70 foot point and up the tower
>felt a bit more springy than usual... I made a mental note to check on the
>guy tension... The towers had just been through a nasty blow ~8 weeks
>earlier that ripped up my 40 meter beam and I had carefully inspected the
>guys and anchors right after that storm, so I wasn't worried about
>mechanical failure on a calm day... Just seemed like the upper guys were
>looser than usual... Yesterday I got a round tuit, grabbed the Loos gauge
>and wandered out... What to me wondering eyes should appear but loose
>turnbuckles, with one of them (a 120' guy) having turned out until there
>were only 3 threads left engaged on each end... Some kind soul had taken
>the 90' and 120' turn buckles and un-weaved the ends of the EHS from from
>the turnbuckle... Whether he also deliberately unscrewed the buckles
>almost completely apart or just left them
> to vibrate, I cannot tell..
> This is annoying... I live in a very rural area back in the woods and a
> quarter mile from the nearest road... To get to my towers one would have
> to walk in a minimum of a half mile across crop fields and then through
> heavy brush and woods... This is the first time in 45 years as a ham I
> have ever found my towers tampered with...
> Now, some kind soul will tell me to clamp the buckles or use a padlock...
> The problem is that if they are up to mischief they will simply bring
> tools... And it wasn't an impulse deal because he went around to all
> three of the 90-120 guy sets... Apparently I have a friend out there...
> grrrr....
>
> denny / k8do
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