[SCCC] LM-470D Tower and remote control

[Richard J. Norton]

The following message, about the Maximum Wind Speed Alarm, is from
Howard White, KY6LA, of San Diego. I am posting it for him as he is
not a member of the SCCC,

73,

Dick, N6AA
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From: "White, Howard" <drpaper at kleega.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 01:59:58 -0800
Subject: RE: [SCCC] LM-470D Tower and remote control
Yes... I did it...

Lots of details about it on the SteppIR reflector a couple of years ago...

Never got around to putting much detail on www.ky6la.com

Very simple... used a "Maximum" Wind Speed Alarm

http://www.maximum-inc.com/index.cfm?p=productDetail&id=131

About $450 street price

which consists of an anemometer and a latching wind alarm relay

Set it for 25 MPH...when the wind exceeds that speed the relay latches which
in turn closes a relay ($5) across the pull down motor switch and
automatically causes the tower to retract.

I used 25 MPH as the set point for the MA-850 Tower that is supporting my
MonstIR because my calculations showed that it would support the MonstIR at
85' at up to 55MPH so to have a huge 400% + safety factor, I set it to 25
MPH..

Of course, fully nested my tower will support 200 SQ FT at 70 MPH

Been up 2 years and works perfectly...

Even have battery backups for everything (motors, relays, anemometers) in
case of power outages

Can't be too careful with protecting valuable antennas...
__________________________________________________________
Howard S. White Ph.D. P. Eng., VE3GFW/K6  ex-AE6SM  KY6LA
Website: www.ky6la.com
"No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"
"Ham Antennas Save Lives - Katrina, 2003 San Diego Fires, 911"