[TowerTalk] Re: Raising and lowering the mast

[Jim Idelson]

I had a tremendous number of responses to this request. There were four camps:
1.	Get a bucket truck
2.	Climb the mast with some temporary angle aluminum steps
3.	Build a permanent custom winching system inside the tower
4.	Temporarily install a worm-gear driven puller from McMaster-Carr with a hook 
for hanging on top and a 12-foot cable with a hook on the other end. See 
http://www.mcmaster.com Enter "33615T15" in the Find field. Look at the bottom 
of the page.

For my raising and lowering the mast requirement, the worm-gear device looks 
like a very workable solution. But, K7LXC opened my eyes to an alternate 
technique, which may be simpler, using the temporary steps and slowly 
'shimmying' the antenna up the mast with boom-to-mast u-bolts in place.

Thanks to everyone.

73,

Jim K1IR

---------- Forwarded Message ----------

FROM: 	 Jim Idelson <k1ir@designet.com>
TO: 	 TowerTalk Post <towertalk@contesting.com>
DATE: 	 Thu, 27 Jul 2000 23:05:41 -0400

RE: 	 FWD: Raising and lowering the mast

Anybody have a good solution for raising and lowering a long mast in a Rohn 25 
tower? The mast is 1/4" chromoly 24 feet long. The rotor is a TailTwister on a 
rotor shelf 8 feet down from the top of the tower. A TB-3 thrust bearing is 
mounted on a rotor shelf immediately above the rotor. Another TB-3 is located 
on the flat-top. 16 feet of mast extends above the top of the tower.

Objective is for one man to be able to easily lower and raise the mast about 10 
feet in order to install and maintain HF antennas anywhere on the mast.

73!

Jim K1IR

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