[TowerTalk] Lifting 25G

[K7LXC@aol.com]

Howdy, TowerTalkians --

    A couple of weeks ago I asked about lifting 100' of 45G in one piece. I 
thought it was a pretty bold thing to do but it turns out that others have done 
it with no problem so I gave it a try. And voila - up it went.

    Yesterday I had to take down 100' of 25G . It'd been up for 40 years and 
a top guy had broken so it was listing precariously. It turns out that the 
owner had used EHS for the bottom 2 sets of guys and they were in FB shape. The 
upper set was some sort of "aircraft" cable that was terminally rusted. In fact 
the rust was the only thing holding it up. :-(  It was a clear violation of 
the LXC Prime Directive to "DO what the manufacturer says".

    Anyway we got the crane out and picked up the whole thing figuring that 
as we lowered it, it would buckle somewhere. Imagine our surprise when it 
didn't! The whole hundred-feet got lowered down unharmed with little deflection of 
the tower. Cool! 

    After 40 years most of the sections were in good shape and the condition 
of the joint nuts and bolts varied from real good to real bad. 

    So if you have a chance to stand a whole tower with a crane, I'd say go 
for it - it's not that expensive, it's fast, and it's safe!

    As an aside, I've decided to hang up my climbing belt at the end of this 
tower season. I'll be 60 by then so it's time to do some stuff that's less 
stressful. Besides, it's way too much damn work - hi. 

Cheers,
Steve    K7LXC
TOWER TECH -
Professional tower services for commercial and amateur
Cell: 206-890-4188