[TowerTalk] My New 40M Antenna

[Jim White, K4OJ]

The tram is a wonderful thing.....

A "tiller" really helps on bigger beam but smaller tribanders may not 
need it as much...

By pulling the beam up along the tram line with the "tiller" the line 
the tiller seeks is "pointed" at the pulley at the top of the tower that 
the pulling rope passes through...

By making the tiller lie in a plane that is slightly different (leading 
end lower than that spot would be on an element) than the elements the 
antenna will ride up the tram with the high end element tips higher with 
respect to the tram line.

If your top guy wires are close to the top of the tower, the sag of the 
elements may cause them to come close to the guys - the slightly 
different plane of the tiller will elevate the leading tips as the 
tiller seeks the line pointing at the pulley... this can help avoid the 
element's tip versus top guy snag scenario from occurring.

Once the beam gets to the top of the tram it is a dead lift on the gin 
pole and the tram lines no longer are used so there is no problem with 
the antenna being "flat" at that point!

I noticed from the great pix KB9CRY posted he used some weights to 
balance the beam while tramming it up... I have found a small hand 
sledge works great for this - you can put a wrap of duct tape or a big 
hose clamp and fine tune the balance while tramming - NOTE - if you use 
some sort of counterweight it is better to have a heavier one closer to 
the mast than one which is lighter but farther away if that distance 
means you cannot reach it from the top of the tower!

I have also used the hand sledge to "balance" a mast so that the shorter 
side from the middle/lift point is "down" during a lift.  You can buy 
some ability to get the mast up higher by making the "bottom" side 
heavier... aids in minimizing pucker factor!

Seasons

Jim, K4OJ




Pete Smith wrote:

> At 02:30 PM 12/18/03 -0600, Chuck Sudds wrote:
> 
>> Thanks for the photos and information about the installation, Phil!  
>> Very impressive.  Looks like you had fewer problems then I did getting 
>> my 5el 20M monobander atop my 90ft Rohn 45G.  Bent a Rohn gin pole in 
>> the process.  Next time, the "Tram System" will definitely be used!
> 
> 
> Many people argue for the use of a backstay because, as Phil says, this 
> puts a lot of stress on the mast.  W9LT (now WA7LT) taught me how to do 
> this using a single cable and what he called a tiller, which is a short 
> piece of tubing u-bolted to the boom like another element.  Put a pulley 
> on the end of the "tiller," also running on the tram line, and you can 
> adjust how high the leading ends of the elements ride so they don't hang 
> up in the top guys as you approach the tower.
> 
> 
> 73, Pete N4ZR
> Happy Holidays
> Check out the World HF Contest Station Database at
>  www.pvrc.org/wcsd/wcsdsearch.htm
> 
> 
> 
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