[TowerTalk] US tower and Ham IV - my experience

[kr2q at optonline.net]

Hi all:

the Ham IV fits fits nicely into the top section of my TX472 (should be the same top section as the US tower 55' job).

Here is the "logical" approach I took.  

1.  What is cost of Orion (which does fit but has issues of its own, already mentioned)

2.  What is the cost of a "second" Ham IV?

3.  What is the cost to repair a Ham IV (CATS or whomever you like) - typically the brake?

4.  How likely is it that the Ham IV will get "ripped apart" in X years?

5.  My decision:  I now have two Ham IV's.  One is always "ready" to get put into the tower if the one already in there fails.  Swapping them is very easy.  I have read that lots of you want to fold over tower to do that.  I never have.  I crank it up so the "rotor area" is exposed, I lock the sections (any of various methods work well), I lock the mast (after jacking it up an inch) and I slip out the old and slip in the new.  I send the "bad one" for repair.

6.  It will take me many decades of this process before I approach the cost of the Orion rotor.

I am turning a 4L 20 on a 32' boom and a 2L shorty 40 (402CD) along with a WARC dipole (cushcraft).  There is lots of wind and ice here in NNJ at almost 1000' ASL.  I never crank the tower down unless there is a hurricane forecast.  So far (I've been here 20 years), I have had ONE repair.

>From a cost benefit analysis, the answer (for me) is obvious.

de Doug KR2Q