[TowerTalk] U-bolt swivel?

[K7LXC at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/11/2007 11:16:58 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
towertalk-request at contesting.com writes:

>  I have a 2 element 40m yagi about 8 feet above the thrust  bearing of
my crankup tower.  Working on the elements or feed is a  real problem
because they are 8 feet away from the mast.  Right now,  the only 2
solutions are:
1) An aerial lift, bucket truck,  cherry picker, etc.
2) Tram the antenna down from the tower  after tramming down the SteppIR
mounted at the  thrust bearing.   This is quite a bit of work and requires
climbing the mast which doesn't thrill me a whole  lot.

>  It would sure be nice to be able to swivel the yagi at  the U-bolt to
allow either element to be brought near the tower/mast  for
maintenance.  I've seen swivel attachments but the ones I saw  didn't
look too substantial and they have very limited range.  In  other
words, they wouldn't be able to get the element close enough to  the
tower to avoid #1 or #2 above.

>  Any other bright ideas  out there?
 
    You forgot 3) which is to have your haul rope  above the antenna as far 
as you can get it with the end of your haul rope  attached to the antenna. 
Tension the haul line. Then you take the mast  mounting U-bolts off - the antenna 
is now hanging by the haul line. Now pull  the boom towards you. Put a sling 
loop as a choker around the boom.  Put another sling around the mast - use a 
carabiner to hook them  together.
 
    Now pull the boom and slide the boom sling along  the boom as far as you 
can. Once you let go of the boom, the boom sling will  tighten and hold the 
boom in place. Repeat as necessary until you can reach  the element. You can see 
that the more haul line you've got above, the easier  it'll be. 
 
    Yes, the antenna will be a handful and yes, it's  a bunch of work but it 
will get the element within reach. I've done this many  times with CC shorty 
fortys and it works FB. You can also uses a comealong to  pull the antenna if 
necessary. 
 
    Personally I like the drive-in lift myself. You  only need to go up 
35-40' or so. One phone call will take care of it. 
 
    What problem are you trying to resolve? I don't  remember what it is. 
Some sort of feedline problem? 
 
    The PVRC mount has some merit if you can  fabricate one. Methinks that 
your nearby tree and nearby SteppIR will prevent  much antenna tilting by the 
mount so I'm not sure how useful that'll be  anyway.
 
Cheers,
Steve     K7LXC
TOWER TECH -
Professional tower services for hams
Cell: 206-890-4188
 
PS - How's Noah and his little sister? She must be getting big now. 



 



************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.