[TowerTalk] How do you move a gin pole *safely* up the tower?

[jeremy-ca]

Ive done it this way for over 40 years:

With the pole down and the rope knotted as already mentioned I tie the clamp 
to another harness around my body (actually a shortened nylon boat strap 
these days) and simply walk it up. The gin pole isnt heavy and I was around 
145# when I first did it; Ive "matured" a bit since then!

Carl
KM1H


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dick Green WC1M" <wc1m at msn.com>
To: "'R Atkins'" <rusty_atkins at yahoo.com>; <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2007 8:00 AM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] How do you move a gin pole *safely* up the tower?


> It sounds like you're not collapsing the gin pole (bringing the head down 
> to
> the clamp) when you are trying to move it. That definitely makes it much
> harder to attach the clamp.
>
> I tried it a couple of different ways:
>
> 1. Leaving the rope tied to the section you just raised, climb down to the
> clamp, loosen the pole set screw and let the pole slide down to the clamp.
> Tie the rope around the head so that it can't slide through. Remove the
> clamp from the tower and let the gin pole dangle from the rope. Climb back
> up to the top of the section you just installed and use the rope to haul 
> the
> clamp/head up to your level. Attach the clamp to the tower, untie the rope
> from the head of the gin pole, loosen the set screw, extend the gin pole,
> and tighten the set screw.
>
> The hard part of this method is lifting the pole up to your level. If you
> use a separate pulley and rope it will be a lot easier (can be done by the
> ground crew), but that involves more climbing and rigging.
>
> 2. Leaving the rope tied to the section you just raised, tie the rope 
> around
> the head of the pole so the rope can't slide through. Climb down to the
> clamp and remove it from the tower. The pole will be dangling from the top
> of the section you just installed. Slide the clamp up the pole as you 
> climb
> back up to the head. This will require loosening the set screw to slide 
> the
> clamp and tightening the set screw so you can let go to climb. When you 
> get
> there, attach the clamp to the tower, untie the rope from the head, extend
> the gin pole, and tighten the set screw.
>
> The hard part of this method is having to clip and unclip yourself to the
> tower in order to free a hand to loosen the set screw, slide it up, and
> tighten the set screw. You also have to be careful not to drop the clamp 
> or
> it will fall all the way to the ground. I attached a safety line to the
> clamp to prevent this.
>
> I'd be interested to hear how the pros do this. I consider it probably the
> hardest part of stacking a tower.
>
> 73, Dick WC1M
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: R Atkins [mailto:rusty_atkins at yahoo.com]
>> Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 7:18 PM
>> To: towertalk at contesting.com
>> Subject: [TowerTalk] How do you move a gin pole *safely* up the tower?
>>
>> Hey all! Things all going rather well, we are up to 35 feet so far.
>> other than a few mis-starts, all is good except for one thing... How do
>> you get the gin pole *safely* up to the next level? It seems like
>> ideally they would have two clamps (I don't know if that's right or
>> not)... but this one doesn't.
>>
>> When I get it up to where I need to mount it, it becomes *very*
>> unwieldy. The leverage 8-10 feet up makes it nearly impossible to keep
>> vertical with one hand while I try to clamp it to the tower leg with my
>> other hand.
>>
>> If you can help.. please reply directly as we are stacking
>> sections/building the tower as I write this.
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Rusty
>> K0FE
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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