[TowerTalk] Raising the Mast w/Antennas

[AA6DX]

Yep .. know about that poundage .. been there, done that, quite a few times
... never a 30 foot mast, though ... whew!  For my own station, once had 22
feet mast, a REAL Hy-Gain Long John, 15M mono .. 204BA on top, 6el mono 10
in the middle ..  w/ steps installed afterwards, for tweakin'...and .. well,
you get the idear! 2 bearings (TB3).  Another installation, at Washington DC
(Northern VA) same mast, Mosely 20m mono, 5 el, 46' boom, up 8' above 64'
flopover Rohn 45... fun fun ...  and all the other bigguns...plus, FM
broadcast antennas.  That can be fun in nasty wx... like, snow!
The real tower guy, though is ex AL7CQ  .. now K5ZO ... best I've ever seen
in action.  Rich, KL7RA no slouch either .. up outside Fairbanks, during
CQWW 25 or 30 below, fixing the lower 20 meter beam as to rotate again so I
could keep the rate on 20 .. I kept on using the top antenna while he was on
the tower in the ice fog...now, that's serious tower work!
HIHI .. Mark
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tower (K8RI)" <tower at rogerhalstead.com>
To: "AA6DX" <aa6dx at pacbell.net>; "Tower Talk" <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 6:33 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Raising the Mast w/Antennas


>
> With over 600# of mast and antennas and raising the mast 30 feet I had no
> problem with binding. OTOH I use two thrust bearings. One at the top of
the
> tower and one about a foot above the top of the rotor which is about 20-25
> feet down inside the tower.
>
> >Using a come-along to raise the mast through the thrust bearing(s) after
> the antennas are >installed is a problem, as the mast binds as it is
pulled
> slightly to the side as raised.  To >overcome that situation, I put a
metal
> pulley upside down into the mast, and connected the >cable to the
come-along
> at the opposite side of the tower from the hoist..  .. .. so the mast was
> >pulled more or less straight up....worky worky!
>
> And you gain a 2:1 mechanical advantage.
>
> Roger Halstead (K8RI, EN73 & ARRL Life Member)
> N833R, World's Oldest Debonair (S# CD-2)