-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: [NCDXC Chat] FYI: Tower maintenance
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 20:10:27 -0700
From: DTucker423 via Chat <chat@ncdxc.org>
Reply-To: DTucker423 <dtucker423@frontier.com>
To: wvdxc@yahoogroups.com, NCCC <nccc@contesting.com>, Norm NCDXC <chat@ncdxc.org>


FYI:  I recently had a problem on one of my towers that seemed like the rotor was failing and did not want to turn fully. After some heavy winds up here I suspected rotor damage.  It turned out ( no pun intended) that at the top of the US Tower crankups there is a 6 inch sleeve that the mast goes through.  In the sleeve  there are 2 square headed bolts that are used to lock down the mast when you are pulling the rotator out.      In investigating the problem, I found that one of the bolts had vibrated in and was gouging the mast, creating a friction point that impeded the rotor. I backed them out and secured them so they would not vibrate back in and it all worked fine.  Last night I noticed the same effect on another tower, and when I climbed it today I found the same problem.   Easy fix.  

 If you have a similar tower you may want to check to see if your bolts are secured before you end up damaging your mast or rotor.


Dave
ka6bim@arrl.net