crankup caution (fwd)

[ramirezk at emi.com]

I almost passed out just by reading this story. Whew...
I have heard other horror stories resulting in Death from 
K3LYW,owner of United States Towers. You would sell your 
crankups if you heard some of these.Ken KP4XS/W4

On Fri, 16 Feb 1996, "Rich L. Boyd" <rlboyd at CapAccess.org> 
wrote:
>
>
>Rich Boyd KE3Q
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 12:43:50 GMT
>From: tony wyn jones <tony at gwyepu.demon.co.uk>
>To: rlboyd at capaccess.org
>Subject: Re: crankup caution
>
>HI Rich,
>
>(In reply to your message dated Sunday 11, February 1996)
>
>Well, I can but relate to a sticky situation I found myself in 
a few years ago while
>doing a local VHF contest field-day. Being an enthusiastic 
teenage know-all, I decided
>to climb a 60ft crank-up, and attach a 500w floodlamp at the 
30ft point, so we could
>have an illuminated contest site at night. (we are already qrv 
at this time, and pulling
>the VHF array down in mid-contest was not acceptable to 
everyone!) 
>
>After the contest, I was asked to retreive the halogen lamp, 
and decided to climb the 
>crank-up. I didn't even have a climbing belt (WAS I STUPID!), 
but 30ft wasn't that high
>to an enthusiastic teenager......Whilst undoing the lamp's 
fastening with one hand, 
>and holding on to the tower with the other, the top and middle 
sections of the crank-up 
>collapsed about 2 feet into the bottom section. 
>
>I was violently jerked, and for a split-second was left 
dangling with one hand firmly
>crushed in-between two sections, and blood proceeded to gush 
out and run down the tower
>leg. I nearly passed out, but somehow managed to hang on with 
my "good" hand. Unbenown 
>to me, someone had tried to wind the mast down, and it had 
become jammed, but about 2 ft
>of wind-up wire rope slack had been released, and when I 
climbed to the 30ft mark, and
>jerked the sections, dowm came the mast, thereby trapping my 
hand and severely damaging
>my fingers.
>
>What was annoying was the fact that the "team" hadn't noticed 
anything was wrong, and it 
>took some considerable time to alert them that a serious 
accident had happened (one guy 
>came to the bottom of the mast to see if he could help, and 
passed out as blood poured
>over him!). 
>
>I could only be released by someone climbing the mast with an 
iron bar, and forcefully
>lifting the top two sections in a crowbar fashion. I had been 
essentially trapped at the
>30ft level, and had lost lots of blood, and then had to climb 
down with one hand! When
>I got to the bottom, feeling giddy and weak (faint!), another 
HERO passed out when he
>uttered " let's have a look at this scratch then!".........
>
>I was taken to Hospital over 20 miles away, and my fingers were 
sown back on my hand,
>although today  have lot's of bad scars, the only tell-tail 
sign is that my "ring" finger
>and my little finger are bent like bananas. 
>
>I am NOT proud of this episode, and consider I was extremely 
lucky not to have passed-out
>and lost my grip of the mast at the 30ft level, and may be 
loosing all my fingers at that
>point!!!
>
>I've never sent much to the Internet reflectors, as I have to 
receive my mail this end
>through a 3rd party, and sending to the "group" is hassle. I 
would be grateful if you
>would consider forwarding or reproducing this message to any 
reflector you may think 
>appropriate, in the hope that it prevents others from doing 
such lethal things as
>climbing crank-up masts!!
>
>(Did I type all the above with all these bent fingers Hi!)
>
>73 de  T O N Y .. GW4VEQ
>
>-- 
>Tony Wyn Jones
>tel: 01248 750262 [Ext:290]
>fax: 01248 750093
>DXcluster: gw4veq > gb7adx
>BBS Packet: gw4veq @ gb7osp
>BT Gold: 10092:LLA3060
>Internet: tony at gwyepu.demon.co.uk
>
>
>
>

>From jreid at aloha.net (Jim Reid)  Fri Feb 16 22:56:52 1996
From: jreid at aloha.net (Jim Reid) (Jim Reid)
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 12:56:52 -1000
Subject: Nye Viking Tuners
Message-ID: <199602162256.MAA20804 at hookomo.aloha.net>

Having sold and shipped away my MFJ and Ten Tec tuners,
I've found my 87A linear wants some antenna tweaking to be
happy on 80 CW and 160.  So,  picked up the phone and
ordered a Viking MB-V-A  3kW tuner.  HRO happily took my
order,  said something about a backlog,  and clocked the
price already to my Visa card,  statement has now come with
the charge thereon.  Have waited a couple of weeks,  so called
HRO once again.  No word on the unit,  so asked for the phone
number of the Wm. M.  Nye Co.,  now in Idaho.

Called there,  and Don told me I would be waiting some six to
nine more months for delivery of the tuner!  I was both disappointed
and shocked,  to say the least.  Don went on to explain that just
about everything in the unit is made right there: coils,  caps, case,
the works.  In fact that day he was cutting out capacitor plates!
A lobor of love,  he explained.

He then mentioned that I might find the unit might not tune on 160!
Another surprise.  He couldn't tell me why it might not work,  but
that for some set ups it worked,  and others it didn't.  Sometimes he
could make some little fixes to bring the unit around on 160,  and
other times he couldn't.

So,  I guess now I must wait many months to discover if the unit
will do half of what I ordered it to do.  Have any of you in your 
contest stations used the unit and had to do some inside-the-
box fixes to get it to tune about the 160 and lower 80 bands?
I'm setting up my 160 full size half-wave dipole to resonate
as close to 1830 as I can,  since KH6 is DX per the ARRL;
 the 80 resonates about 3750,  but has around 4:1
vswr at 3505;  needless to say the 87A won't put out a peep
at that reflection!

Any thoughts would be appreciated.  Really think I'd like to get
the pi-network of the Viking design,  a la the old Johnson Viking
Matchbox design fame,  so guess will just have to wait and hope.
I would think if I got a pretty low 50 vswr at 1830 or so,  the unit
would tune around the area enough to get below 1.5 (the Alpha's
seeming cut-off to fault vswr).

BTW, ARRL DX begins in about 63 minutes!
73 and Aloha,
Jim Reid, AH6NB (Happily retired on the Island of Kauai)
Hawaii,  USA     Email: jreid at aloha.net