Plumbing a Tower

Sat Sep 30 09:49:14 EDT 1995

        I use a 3' carpenter's level as I construct the tower.  The key is
to keep the tower plumb as you go up.

        Before pouring the base with first section, I orient the body of the
level toward each guy point to plumb the section on each leg.  I then
temporarily guy the first section about 5' from the base to hold it as the
concrete is poured and check it again immediately after the pour is done.
As Rohn says, it's OK to move the tower laterally a little bit but do not
try to move it vertically. 

        After adding sections and attaching guy wires to each guy point as
you go up, check each leg as mentioned above.  Watch out for irregularities
on the surface of the legs, and make sure the level points toward each guy
point as you make measurements.  After a little experience, you can sell how
many turns to loosen or tighten each turnbuckle by looking at the amount the
bubble is off.  If I get the base section true and first guy point correct,
I can almost do the remaining guy points visually by looking up the tower
from the base as additional guys are added.  If you have an eye for such
things (my father was a general contractor), you can easily see which guy
needs adjustment as you look around the 3 sides.   However, I still use the
level at each guy point as I go up just to be sure.

        If you have access to a transit (your local builder or surveyor
MIGHT let you borrow their OLD non-electronic one), this is the best way to
both lay out guys and check for plumbness, but there are other ways!  It may
take a little longer but I'll wager that my tower is as plumb as one done
with a transit.   All I can say for plumb bobs is that the winds must be a
lot calmer in other parts of the country than Colorado or NC.  I was having
trouble keeping the wind from blowing 45G sections into my tower as I was
raising the uppermost sections!

        BTW, in erecting my 178 footer in August, I found several nice
inexpensive tools that might be of interest.  I had the good fortune fo
being able to borrow tools from W0UN when I was in Colorado, but needed to
buy some here since I couldn't find any hams locally that had such things.
The first was 3 cable clamps for installing and  tensioning the guy wires.
I found a product called Mini-Mule manufactured by Deuer Manufacturing in
Dayton, OH (Phone 513-298-6040 for your local distributor).  It holds wires
or metal from 1/16 to 1/4 inches, has a capacity of 1300 pounds, a nice ring
to attach to a come-along or tie down strap, AND only costs $9.99 each!  

        I also needed 3 come-alongs to install and tension the wires.  When
I put up my tower at my previous NC location, some other hams helped me and
I was surprised to see them using nylon tie-down straps to tension the wires
instead of come-alongs.  The advantage is that the straps are not heavy and
don't tend to weight the guy wire down.  I found some at Lowe's that have
3000 pound strength (they had others around 1000 pounds but I liked the
ratchet mechanism better on these), with hooks on each end of the straps
(that nicely fit the end of an equalizer plate on one end and the wire grip
mentioned above on the other end), and a good ratchet mechanism for around
$10-12 each.  The only modification you will need to make is to shorten the
strap if you are putting up tall towers.  I think their overall length was
about 16 feet but I cut mine off to be about 6 feet long and just seared the
end of the webbing that goes into the ratchet to prevent it from unravelling.

        Thought this might be of interest to some of you.

                                                                            
                                    73,

                                                                            
                                    Bill W0ZV
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Tippett, PO Box 37, New London, NC  28127-0037 USA
Phone/FAX:  +1 704-463-1445   E-mail:  BTIPPETT at sunbelt.net


>From Pb0aiu <pb0aiu at euronet.nl>  Sat Sep 30 14:46:25 1995
From: Pb0aiu <pb0aiu at euronet.nl> (Pb0aiu)
Date: Sat, 30 Sep 1995 14:46:25 +0100
Subject: Cqww-rtty score
Message-ID: <199509301346.OAA23345 at mail.euronet.nl>

CQ WW RTTY Contest


Call used: PI4CC
Location:  Hoek van Holland

Entry Class: M/S HP   

Band    QSOs   Pts   QTH    DX  Zones
80       113   231     3    34     8
40       171   405    22    45    13
20       404  1078    46    66    25
15        64   170    10    36    19
10         1     1     0     1     1
--------------------------------------
Total    753  1885    81   182    66

Score: 620165
--------------------------------------


Claimed Score: 620165

Power Output: 400 watt

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