electric winch

[Howard Brainen]

K9SD has posted some ideas about motorizing a handcrank
winch and having his wife push the button on the ground to
pull a beam up to him at 120 feet on the tower.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've put up alot of
antennas and this idea simply scares the daylights out of
me.

First of all, what about the guy wires on this 120 foot tower?
Getting beams around guys is not a simple task and requires
more than "pushbutton" operation.  Assuming he is using
a catenary line to some distant point, it will still take people
on tag lines to keep the beam from spinning around.

I use a Grainger hand crank winch and I've been very happy
several times that I, or someone very strong and experienced,
was handling the crank and could reverse it quickly if needed.

By the way, these winches have sufficient gearing so the actual
cranking isn't that tough.  It does take a long time to pull something
all the way up, but you don't do it very often, and maybe the extra
time it takes is worth the margin of safety.  

In summary:  Putting antennas on 120 foot towers isn't something
you rush.

Just my thoughts.

73, Howard WZ6Z

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