[TowerTalk] COAX on CRANKUP-how to hang

[Roger (K8RI) on TT]

On 10/31/2013 9:24 AM, Chris wrote:
> There are a lot of other ways for the cable to get snagged and hung up.  It can get caught under the edge of the baseplate, around the motor/winch, stuff on the ground, the edge of my roof, other stuff on the tower, a bolt that sticks out a little far somewhere on the tower, etc.  The fact that cable damage has happened to people I know in at least 4-5 instances dictates that it is an open invitation for Murphy (to repeat an earlier post).  This is almost like saying "I've never been in a car accident so I don't wear a seatbelt."  YMMV.

You plan for the worst and hope for the best.  You won't know the answer 
until you've run the thing to the stops a dozen or so time in all kinds 
of weather and even then it comes with no guarantee.

A well engineered system "should" work, but this is what Murphy lives 
for.  There are just too many things that can go wrong even on guyed 
towers. I had a rotator miss the limit switches on a windy day and 
ruined 5 runs of coax. Hence my dislike for rotators that require a 
mechanical brake because the drive train doesn't have enough resistance 
to hold the antennas.  A crank up has a lot more possibilities.  For 
remote operation I'd have cameras capable of covering the whole thing 
and switches monitoring the deflection of the side arms.

OTOH I'd feel safer watching it and even then it's easy for one person 
to miss a lot of things.

73,

Roger (K8RI)
> Chris
> KF7P
>