[TowerTalk] K0XG Orbital Rotor on US Tower HDX589

[Andre VanWyk]

Steve,

I mounted a Tic-Ring on a US Tower before right at the end of the 2nd last upper section and it lasted just fine. I think a good habit of a crank-up tower owner with "substantial" load on it, would be to monitor weather and have it cranked down if something bad is on the horizon.... I only use motorized towers, so to crank it up or down when not in use is fairly easy.
My problem with the Tic-Rings were lack of customer support, so I am exploring other avenues. Needless to say, I am well aware of the load limits on my towers, so I am approaching this with caution, hence my post.

I now live in Northern MN, and since I mostly operate weekends, it is fairly easy to press a button to crank the tower up and down again if I do not plan on playing radio for a few days.

I am afraid I share the same concerns with the weight of the much heavier K0XG ring, and option B would be an additional crank-up to carry the rest of the antennas.

In my opinion a crank-up is NOT a substitution for a Guyed tower, and you have to live with it's limitations. However, for my current operating habits, and all the cussing I did climbing up my Rohn 55G back in TX to remove Tic-Ring motors and replace bad potentiometers, this seems like a much nicer idea for the amount of time I have for my hobby at present...    

Thanks for your comments / suggestions and for this reflector!

KR5DX

PS: That is why we do have insurance and pay the outrageous premiums, right?




From: K7LXC at aol.com 
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2011 10:17 AM
To: towertalk at contesting.com ; kr5dx at yahoo.com 
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] K0XG Orbital Rotor on US Tower HDX589 


In a message dated 10/12/2011 8:33:14 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, towertalk-request at contesting.com writes:
  >  Anyone out there with this configuration or mounted one of these Orbital rotors (K0XG) on a crank-up before? I would like to exchange ideas as this is my plan.
      Where are you proposing to mount it? I'd say the only place you could mount it feasibly is on the bottom section. Any other place and the added weight of this brute sidemount will exceed the capacity of the tower immediately even with no antenna on it. . 
      Montgomery County is an 85 MPH windspeed zone and it's tough getting any crank-up with much capacity over 70 MPH. 

      If you proceed with this plan, be sure to keep your homeowner's insurance paid up because you're going to need it.

  Cheers,
  Steve     K7LXC
  TOWER TECH -
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