[TowerTalk] [Tower Talk] A tub to receive my coax

[Jim Lux]

On 12/31/12 9:21 AM, Larry Loen wrote:
> Wow, I've received a bunch of _very_ ingenious answers, but as they were
> mostly private, I won't post them.
>
> Still, it suggests some added clarifications:
>
> 1.  As I live in Arizona, there is a summer 'monsoon' season with serious
> lightning potentials.  Some colleagues here tend to leave their tower
> retracted in the summer when DX is scarce and lightning is more common.
> I've seen cloud to ground out here out of clouds that aren't even _raining_
> yet.  Lots of it, in fact.    So, I'm planning on at least some periods of
> time with the tower routinely retracted.  Lightning strike potential, per
> year, is at least as strong here as anywhere else I've lived.  It may be
> the dessert, but lightning doesn't seem to care.


If lightning hits the retracted tower, and travels down the coax shield 
(as it is likely to do), then you might wind up replacing the coax near 
where it touches the ground.

This is an interesting take on the usual "bond the shield to the tower 
at the top and bottom" advice because the configuration isn't fixed.

>
> 3.  Because the tilt over will be at least sometimes there and because the
> finish on the cement is fairly rough, I don't want to see the coax and
> control cable scuffed.  Someone suggested I might consider netting to
> "catch" the coax on lowering.  That is an option to consider.

or cheap sacrificial carpet/astroturf/wood on top of the concrete that 
you just replace when it gets too ugly?
the arms.  That really would be my preferred solution.  Some have suggested
> giving up on remote raising/lowering and guiding the coax with some sort of
> control ropes (I presume, dacron ropes).  That would be another way to deal
> with the snagging problem.

Interesting.. you could also do what they do with the control/power 
cables for moving bridge cranes and the like.. they have loops and clips 
that run along a steel messenger line.  Think shower curtain and shower 
rod.  With a suitable spring loaded retractor, you could have a straight 
messenger line along side the tower.

I don't know if that saves anything, but it would mean you could do away 
with the standoffs sticking out from all the intermediate sections. 
You'd have just one at the top and the "stretchy steel cable" reaching 
to the bottom from it. Do the loops and attachment to the cable sliders 
right, and you might wind up with an "autocoiled" cable nicely hanging 
there.  They make a sort of split loop stuff with a spring steel member 
that tends to coil in a preferred direction (you see a version of it on 
those pneumatic masts on TV trucks, for instance).