[TowerTalk] Vertical/Crank up questions

[Eric Gustafson]

The other day, I posted a response to the above subject thread
that read as follows:

> A more significant thing to worry about is how to control the
> dress and tower connection for the feedline and control cables so
> that they don't participate inappropriately in the vertical
> antenna aspects of the system.  With a crank-up, it isn't
> possible to run them inside the tower structure.

Of course, I never should have said "isn't possible".
Particularly not to a group of innovative hams.  I just assumed
that since I never saw it done that it must not have been
possible.  It turns out that it is merely inconvenient if you
have the right kind of crank-up.  And only impossible if you have
a type that actually makes it impossible.

Anyhow, I got a number of responses off reflector on the
subject.  All were educational.  But one in particular from
Larry, AD6W, was very interesting.  Larry described a method of
controlling the feedline and control line dress for a crank-up
that seems to me to be very close to the "right" (if there is
such a thing) way to do this.

I have never seen this method described on the reflector so I'm
posting it here with permission from Larry.  If you have a
crank-up and have been struggling with how to control the
electrical cables during the crank up/down operation
(particularly for remote or automatic installations that operate
based on wind sensors) or are interested in driving the tower as
a vertical, you might want to read this description carefully.

In response to my post, Larry said:

Never say never.

I run my cables down the inside of my Triex crankup.  The bundle
enters the inside of the tower right below the top plate.  I cut a
hole in a corner of the rotor plate and put in a large grommet to
pass the cables through that restriction.  The bundle is then
attached to the inside of one leg down the inside of the top
section at several points and hangs free from the bottom of the
top section to the ground.  This looks a heck of a lot cleaner,
does not allow the bundle to tangle, and the tower tunes much
better as a shunt-fed vertical on 80 and 160 with the cables
inside.

The bundle is secured (to itself I presume - EG) every 18 inches.
Tape or 1-inch pieces of large-diameter shrink tubing securing
the bundle is preferable to wire ties as there is no "nub" to
catch on anything, and individual cables in the bundle are freer
to "move" a little as the bundle flexes.

At the ground the bundle passes through a large 3-inch diameter
plastic-pipe "U" fastened at the base to guide the bundle out
from under the tower and up the outside of the bottom section.
There, the "loop" of the cable bundle is taken up on a 18-inch
diameter pulley that moves up the side of the tower on a track
made of parallel aluminum tubes fixed at the top and bottom.

< Note that this permits proper bonding of the shields for the
cables in the bundle at the top and at the bottom of the tower
structure _and_ permits running the bundle inside the sttructure
where it won't interfere with the use of the tower as a vertical
radiator. - EG >

This take-up pulley arrangement positively controls all cable
movement so the bundle is never out of control.  The pulley is
pulled upward by a cable that runs through a pulley at the top of
the base section and a pulley at the bottom of the base section
that winds the cable up on the winch drum in the opposite
direction of the raising cable just like a positive-pull-down
cable.  As the tower is lowered the pulley and cable loop rise up
the side of the base section retracting the cable bundle.

73, Larry AD6W.


And then additionally, Larry sent this in response to my request
for permission to post his first message to me: