[CQ-Contest] Tower question long

[Bill Hinkle]

Rick, I had 70 feet of Rohn 25 hinged at the bottom to fold over. I built
my own hinge plate that would hinge the world(maybe). The pole I used for
the hinge cable was a BIG Oak tree about 40 feet away from the tower. I
only had a 4 element 10m antenna on top. The pulley was up in the tree
about 40 to 45 feet. I had a 3/8ths cable rapped all the way around the
tower in 2 places, #1 was at about 40 feet and #2 was at about 52 feet. I
then ran a cable from a point that would pull on #1 and #2 points on the
tower as equal as possible. I did this while the tower was laying on the
ground. After the cable went over the pulley in the tree it went straight
down to a 8000 lb winch I had mounted to the front of my Suburban with a
454 CI engine. When it was going up I thought it was going to lift the
front wheels off the ground!!! The tower had a hell of a bow in it and we
had to tie tag lines on it to keep it from moving side to side.  I worked
in a structural steel shop for 14 years and let me tell you it was
SCARY!!!  And I had no weight on the top like what you want to put on it.

 Get your buddies and put it up like it is supposed to be put up!!!!

                                                                         
     TRUST ME...
                                                                         
     73, Bill KB3AUG
                                                                         
     Riverton, WV

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