[TowerTalk] Tower Conundrum

[TOMMY HALIBURTON]

A lot of hams go with stationary towers. My YL hates the guying method and is afraid of the wind. Another avenue you might try is a retractable tower. I purchased a 54-foot beast with a motordrive (I am getting too old to use the arm-strong method) and this will be my second install with it. While it takes a lot of friends (and a lot of concrete) to erect, it will withstand a great deal of wind and can be brought down to 23-feet when necessary. Of course a crane or raising fixture are other considerations. Towers of this nature come in 37, 54, 72, 89, and 106 foot heights and are either box or flagpole shaped. Even so, they can be limited as to maximum height by using electrical  limit switches or mechanical stops. Just be sure to consider the "heavy duty" models for maximum windload.

I am pouring concrete (7.1 yards), in the backyard, next week. While my tower specs call for 3.5 yards, I like overbuilding as I never have to worry about things falling down. The antennas will be a 2-L 40 meter yagi, a 4L 20/17/15/12/10 meter yagi, and a sloper for 160/80. The rotator will be an OR-2800. Since I am now in Colorado, with horrendous lightening strikes in the spring and summer, I am also doing a lot of bookwork on grounding techniques. I had to rule out the MONSTIR by Fluidmotion because of I could not stand to see $4K go down the drain due to possible strikes.
Whatever you do, good luck!

"DX is"

Tommy - K6YE