[TowerTalk] Shunt Feeding Crank Up Towers

[Ve6wz_Steve]

Tom:

I have shunt fed the US tower HDX-589 for many years with no trouble.
The metal-to-metal section contact and lift cables appear to provide
adequate conductivity.

In my case, I have a 2 foot aluminum shunt arm hose-clamped at the top
of the third section from the bottom.  I keep my tower cranked down all
the time except when QRV, so the tower goes up and down all the
time....I just let the shunt wire pile-up on the ground (same with the
control lines and coax.

Obviously your tap point will be different than mine, but it's just a
matter of experiment. Unfortunately, the shunt-arm will need to be at
the top of a section so that you can still crank it down, (with your
tower I think you will only have 4 choices !!) so getting a perfect
match can be a bit tricky.  By moving the wire closer, or further from
the tower base can "fine-tune" things a bit, and if necessary, an omega
match could be used.  (a gamma match gives me 1.2:1)

I tuned the tower first with a large air variable, measured the value,
and then replaced it with a coax capacitor made from RG-8.

73, de steve ve6wz.
http://www.qsl.net/ve6wz/index.html

> Does anyone have experience they can share with loading a 
> crank up tower on 160?  In particular I have a 72 foot US 
> Tower crank up with 6 el 20, 2 el 40, and a ratable 80 dipole 
> on it.  Details would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks, Tom, W0ZR