[TowerTalk] Help with design of Tilt over fixture - Thanks!

[jdraughn]

Hello all,
Thanks to everyone who responded. I received several very interesting
ideas and a lot to think about. I believe I'm on the right road now
and the help is much appreciated.
Now if I can just figure a way to make that bright shiny new antenna
match the old Mosley Classic 33 so the neighbors won't notice too much
I'll be in great shape hihi.
Thanks again!
Regards,
Jeff, N0OST



-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of jdraughn
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 7:42 AM
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] Help with design of Tilt over fixture


Hello all,
Please excuse this long post, but I want to include as much info as I can to
try
and explain the situation I have.

I need some help with a suitable design for a raising/lowering fixture for
my tilt over
tower. The tower is a Tristao 38-40' I believe. It has 2 sections one of
which is raised and lowered buy a hand winch. At the present I have a Mosley
Classic 33 (18 foot boom)on the tower. I plan on adding a 6 meter beam and a
144/440 vertical.

My problem is I can no longer climb because of medical problems so I am in
need of
an alternate method of adding to or doing maintenance on the tower.

The tower looks very similar to the US Tower model HDX-538. Remove the back
bolt and
it tilts over on the front two bolts. Because of the boom length the tower
can only be lowered to about 10' from the ground. I have built a support for
holding it safely in this position while servicing it.

What I have in mind is something very similar to the US Towers TRX-80 or
TRX-80HD
raising fixture that they have pictured in their catalog. It's nothing real
complicated. A piece of pipe with some kind of pulley mounted to the top and
a hand crank winch on the backside. The cable goes over up over the pulley
and fastens to the
tower. I'm not sure if there is a pulley on the tower or if the cable is
just attached
directly to the tower by some means.
There are two support arms that attach to the fixture pipe and to the front
of the base to give some added support during raising and lowering
operations.

So I guess my question is has anyone built something similar to this?
I thinking about a 10' section of 3" steel pipe with a wall thickness of
about
a quarter of an inch buried 3' in concrete with the pulley and winch as
described above
except this would be permanently in the ground. Support arms could be added
and attached
to the concrete base near the front if needed.
How far back from the tower should the pipe be and should the cable attach
straight out from the pulley to the tower or above or below this point. How
should it be attached, directly to the tower or should I have a pulley
attached to the tower and run the cable thru it and back to an attachment
point on the fixture?

I want a safe fixture but am I making this more complicated than it needs to
be?

The tower and antenna is not real heavy it took only three guys pushing up
with two
more on a rope pulling back to raise the tower.

I can send pictures of the tower as it is now to anyone if that would help
and I have also posted them on the web at http://www.cqhamradio.us/tower.htm

I have also thought about contacting US Tower and see if they would build me
one of their fixtures except instead of mounting it to the base of the tower
as theirs does now just have them use a longer section of pipe to be buried
in the ground. But I'm afraid they would want a fortune to build it. I think
their fixtures run about 500.00
without any custom work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Jeff, N0OST


_______________________________________________

See: http://www.mscomputer.com  for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless
Weather Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any
questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.

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