[TowerTalk] My New 40M Antenna

[Pete Smith]

At 05:01 PM 12/18/03 -0600, Mark Beckwith wrote:
>Real World Lesson: though it seems like the elements should lift above the
>plane of the pull rope by an amount equal to the angle of the tiller (to the
>elements), you may have to have the tiller at a greater angle than you want
>the elements to rise.
>
>I had to reset the tiller about 3 times to get the element tips high enough.
>This was complicated by an adjacent (i.e. too close) tree I had to tram
>OVER, and, of course, the fact that I was doing it alone in the dark.
>
>I just re-read that and concluded that I must actually be as dumb as I look.


Haven't we all been there?  The mechanics of a tram are quite sporty.  If 
you put enough tension on the tram wire to reduce the sag so that this 
problem Mark describes doesn't occur, you're really putting a lot of strain 
on the mast, hence the possible need of a backstay.  If you don't, you may 
almost not be able to get the tiller at a radical enough angle to get the 
element tips where they need to be.  Catch 22.


73, Pete N4ZR
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