[TowerTalk] TowerTalk Digest, Vol 64, Issue 24

Wed Apr 9 23:10:15 EDT 2008

hi,
on my tx-472 i tie off the bundle of coax and cables to the top coax arm as many have said.  i do use a homebrew rope kellum tieoff on the bundle just after it passes down through the top coax support, to keep the weight of the coax off the larger 90 degree bend the coax takes to go horizontal to the rotor slack.  

i then route the bundle through the lower coax arms, again as many of said.  this really works well.

what i might do different is at the lower coax arm that is about 21' up.  coming up from the bottom i have pre-measured the total coax length needed when the tower is fully extended.  i then went ahead and tied off the bundle of coax and cables to the bottom section tower leg (and made sure it did not get in the way of the inner tower sections going up and down) to the lower coax arm.

now the tough part to explain.  i did another homebrew kellum tie off just above the lower coax arm.  yes above.  the key is, now when i retract the tower the coax coming down loops toward the ground from the then back up to the lower coax arm.  then over and into the lower coax arrm.  i did work at it a little to be sure this 180 the coax takes at the lower coax arm stays a large sweeping 180 not to damage the coax.  

what is nice is i can almost totally retract the tower and not have any coax on the ground.  fully retracted i may have 15' or so, but it is not much and very easily managed.  many times when i retract due to winds coming i may leave it about the 30' mark or so, just where the loop of coaxs touch the ground. it is neater.  i do stop it at a slightly different spot each time, so the cable doesn't take a set or flatten on the pullys, that might happend if you stop at the same place each time. 

one disadvantage however.  if you stop the tower in the middle for what ever reason, then the big loop can swing in the wind some.  i just have a very small nylon cord that i loop it up over the big coax loop and tie it off.   not a big deal and if you only operate fully extended or fully retracted, this is not needed. 
73 & soft landings, jay, wa0www> ------------------------------> Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2008 20:15:40 EDT> From: K7LXC at aol.com> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Routing Coax on a Crank Up Tower> To: towertalk at contesting.com, willemma at telkomsa.net> Message-ID: <bcd.25b94f42.352eb62c at aol.com>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"> > > In a message dated 4/9/2008 1:28:38 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, > towertalk-request at contesting.com writes:> > > Since I started erecting my tower I have requested advice from this group> and received excellent guidance. > > You came to the right place!> > > Now the tower is up and I need advice on> how to rout the coax on a crack Up Tower. When lowering the tower what is> the neatest and safest way to route the coax so that when extending the> tower the coax will easily "unwind" again. I am hoping for some good ideas> as I could not come up with a single one - hi! > > > My preferred method is to tape the bundle of cables every foot or so > into one bundle. Secure the cables from the rotator and down the mast to a > rotation loop to the top-most coax standoff. Then have the cable bundle run thru > the subsequent standoffs to act as guides on the way up and down. The cable > bundle will coil onto the ground as it come down and the reverse is true as > well. Some guys like to collect the cable bundle into something; e.g. garbage > can, big fishing net, kiddie's swimming pool. > > An alternative is to secure the bundle to each standoff. This > necessitates a lot of farting around running the tower up and down to get the lengths > right and IMO doesn't buy you much. > > The even more important aspect of this question is to ALWAYS BE STANDING > AT THE TOWER WHENEVER IT IS IN MOTION! A cable can catch on something, > something can break. If you're not watching it with the kill switch within easy > reach and you're not watching it, you're courting disaster. > > Love those crack up towers. > > Cheers,> Steve K7LXC> TOWER TECH -> Professional tower services for hams> Cell:206-890-4188> 