[TowerTalk] Tower, rotator and antenna maintenance

[Peter Helder]

Once a year is ok too, whatever you want to do I love climbing, and the ham I do the maintenance for wants it done twice a year so I do it twice a year.   I look for anything that could be a problem,   Last year I happen to spot a crack in the boom to mast clamp on his Hy-Gain 20 meter mono bander.  Glad to have spot that, or the antenna could have come down in a winter storm.  I also check the coax feedlines and other cables, check all the guy clamps and guy cables.   I start at the top and work my way down. > From: petehelder at hotmail.com
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:59:04 -0500
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Tower, rotator and antenna maintenance
> 
> 
> 
> I do maintenance twice a year to two towers, mainly checking for rust spots and loose nuts and bolts.  sanding the rust spots and respraying them with cold galvenize from rustoleum.In the spring and just before the winter sets in.    W8PD / Pete > From: K7LXC at aol.com
> > Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:49:23 -0500
> > To: towertalk at contesting.com; kiessig at gmail.com
> > Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Tower, rotator and antenna maintenance
> > 
> > >  How often do you go to the top of your tower and do  maintenance on the
> > antenna, rotator, coax, antennas, etc? Just when something  breaks? Or more
> > often?
> >  
> >         In my UP THE TOWER  book, there's a chapter on maintenance. Many 
> > commercial sites have annual  inspections, sometimes mandated by their 
> > insurance carrier. 
> >  
> > >  When you get up there, do you have a set routine? Do you  look for 
> > anything
> > special, other than obviously misplaced  wear-and-tear?
> >  
> >     You want to push and pull on things. You want  to put a wrench on some 
> > of the nuts and bolts. In a real tower  inspection you'll put a wrench to 
> > about 10% of the nuts and bolts but for a ham  array, I'd put a wrench on 
> > everything I can reach. This includes antenna,  feedlines, appurtenances, 
> > rotators, etc.  
> >  
> > >  Do you go up more often when the tower is new, for reasons  other than
> > something being broken or obviously wrong?
> >  
> >     If everything is operating properly, an annual  inspection is plenty. 
> >  
> >     A ham in VE7 with a 3-tower contest station used to  have problems of 
> > some sort every year. When we started doing an annual  inspection, his 
> > problems dropped to zero. 
> >  
> > Cheers,
> > Steve     K7LXC
> > TOWER TECH -
> > Professional tower services for amateurs
> > Cell: 206-890-4188
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