[CQ-Contest] The Oracle Spoke

[Pete Smith]

Maybe not "exactly".  In a couple of the pictures I see what appears to 
be a special fixture used to anchor the extension ladder to the tower, 
there is a pull-up line to support the weight, and Andrew (I assume it's 
him) is tied off to the ladder by a lanyard.  Now he *is* a little mad, 
but...

In any case, this is nothing like as hairy as the professional tower 
guys and the 197-foot crane operator trying to jog the top 100 feet of 
K4JA's super-105 40M tower into place on the bottom 100 feet.  The 
amounts of weight involved and potentially swinging suddenly, and the 
very limited leverage anyone had, would have scared me silly.  Wish you 
could see the pix but most of them are gone, even from the wayback 
machine.  The whole shebang, 200 feet of tower on a rotating base and 2 
OWA yagis, went up in a single day, on the Friday before the ARRL CW 
contest.  Finished at 6:05 PM, almost in the dark.

73, Pete N4ZR

The World Contest Station Database, updated daily at www.conteststations.com
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On 2/28/2011 5:04 PM, Steve London wrote:
> On 02/28/2011 01:46 PM, Nate Bargmann wrote:
>> Lawyers?
>>
>> I recall in the early '80s an April QST cover showing an obviously
>> doctored photo of a guy laying on a brace that ran from the top of the
>> tower to the driven element of his HF yagi so he could (presumably)
>> adjust the Gamma match.  The ensuing letters to the editor were
>> incredible reading.  I found it hard to believe that anyone could take
>> the photo seriously as a condoned method of tower work.  Even though
>> this was well before body harnesses and 100% tie-off was in vogue in
>> amateur circles.
> The irony here is that this is exactly the method used today by a leading
> amateur radio antenna installation and maintenance company. See
>
> http://www.pbase.com/df3kv/beam_repair
>
> 73,
> Steve, N2IC
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