[TowerTalk] Crank-up towers

[Pat Chiles]

I have US Tower 555HDX.  It has a TH7 2 feet above the top of the tower and a Cushcraft XM240 about 12 feet above that.  I installed both of these antennas myself without my feet barely left the ground.  My method is very similar to Bill (W2WO) except for the following.  I modified the two booms into three equal sections and used three foot sections of aluminum tubing to splice the sections.  When I lower the tower(boom end down) I remove two 1/4 inch bolts at one of the splices and that section with elements attached drops away and allow me to lower the TH7 mast plate to about 4 feet from the ground and the XM240 mast plate about 6 feet from the ground.  If I need to get to the top section of the boom then the tower goes all the way up and that end is rotated so it will be on the bottom when the tower is lowered the second time.  Probably not everyones cup of tea, but it works for me.

Pat, K8PC