[TowerTalk] Rotor replacement

[Dale L Martin]

Barry,

I've replaced the rotator twice in our club's rohn 45g 80' tower. 
 Here's my procedure: 

1.  Go to Home Depot (or equiv) and buy 4 u-bolts to fit the mast and 
3 to fit the legs. 

2.  Buy three pieces of the right-angle stock with the holes in it. 

3.  Attach (finger-tight) each piece of stock to a leg with the leg 
u-bolt.  attach (finger-tight) the stock pieces to the mast with the 
mast-sized u-bolts.  

4.  Loosen the mast in the rotator. 

5.  With a crow-bar or pry-bar between the mast end and rotator, lift 
the rotator a 1/4-1/2".  Put a shim or something in to hold the mast 
in place.  Attach the 4th mast u-bolt to the mast at the top of the 
thrust bearing.  Lift the mast and remove the shim. 

6.  If the antennas are pointed where you want, tighten the angle 
stock piece u-bolts. 

This method kept a 4-element 15m beam (@90') and a 204BA at 80' 
pointed in one direction and made the removal and, two weeks later, 
the installation of the rotator a breeze.  

I've used this method on my rohn 25g at home a couple of times and it 
works like a charm. 

I can speak from experience that a mast  free to lean with antennas 
mounted on it will be extremely difficult and dangerous to get back 
into the rotator clamshell half--then you have to manage to get the 
other half of the clamshell on while keeping the mast in place. 

Good luck and 73,
dale, kg5u