[TowerTalk] Questionable HyTower mods

[Tim Duffy K3LR]

Hi Rob:

It's not questionable - it's calculated.

It's all about proper engineering. 

Engineer it right and you don't have a HyTower wet noodle - you have a
really good 80 meter vertical.

20 years - with the extended version at K3LR - no problems.

It's good that there are lots of ways to make a 80 meter vertical.
A properly modified monoband HyTower is just one.

73!
Tim K3LR

-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Rob Atkinson
Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 9:14 PM
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Questionable HyTower mods

If you already have an old HyTower sitting around it's yours to wreck
if you want to but I find the idea of stripping a HyTower and turning
it into a 1/4 w. vertical for 80 a waste of a good multiband antenna.

A new HyTower is around $1000 now.   Lets say you have one and pull
off all the stubs etc.  You are left with 25 feet of tapered BX
looking tower.  Now you have to put a 40 foot tapered vertical on top
of that.  There may be a way to do it but I'm not sure the top of the
tower part is built to hold and withstand the wind loading stresses of
a 40 foot aluminum stinger.   Maybe it's okay with one that's a real
wet noodle in the wind.

If it were me I'd keep the HyTower for something else or sell it and
get 4 sections of R20 used and use those fiberglass rods for
insulators and put a 25 foot aluminum tube in the top section.  You'd
have to do something like clamp it in the center with brass screws, or
get 4 universal aluminum tower sections and do the whole thing as
aluminum.  Probably several hundred dollars cheaper than a HyTower and
you wouldn't see part of your so-called vertical, horizontal in the
wind hi hi.

73

Rob K5UJ
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