[TowerTalk] Universal 9-50

[Gedas]

I have 3 universal towers, two 70' and one 50'......So the story goes 
like this.....almost 30 years ago my friend and I were dumb enough to 
try to walk up the 50' tower that had a 10' aluminum mast out the top 
and a pair of long boom 2m yagi's.  Picking the tower top end up off the 
ground and walking it up by myself seemed so easy that I figured with 
the help of my also strong friend that this should be pretty darn 
easy......I mean heck the instructions that come with every tower even 
shows a guy simply walking up the tower !

We were both in our middle 20's and in (then) excellent physical shape 
and actually pretty strong dudes.  I am over 6' and could easily carry 
things like my washer and drying out by myself to the P/U truck as I 
moved around from QTH to QTH just by bear-hugging it.  Anyway, you get 
the idea, we were not wimps.

So anyway, as far as raising this tower, things were super easy until we 
got to the final point where the tower had only 20-30 degrees to go 
before it got vertical.

It was at that point we both started to crap our pants......we both 
realized that no amount of pushing that we could generate, from down on 
ground level, could exert enough force to make that tower go that 
additional 20-30 degrees that we needed it to go.

After realizing the serious situation we were in, and with time very 
quickly running out, we talked it over and realized we had two 
choices......let go and quickly get out of the way or give it absolutely 
everything we had and try one last time to make the tower vertical.

We decided to give it absolutely everything we had and after several 
very agonizing minutes we managed to get the tower vertical.  I thought 
we were both going to have a stroke from our efforts.  Every time I buy 
another tower section and get the paperwork that comes with it, and I 
see that cartoon pictorial of the fella simply walking up the tower 
makes me cringe.

Sure, an empty 40-50 foot tower you can probably do if you are in good 
shape and are strong, but put a rotor, mast, antennas, and heliax etc up 
along with it and you quickly realize the definition of a lever-arm.  My 
advice is to never try to walk up a tower.  Always pull it up from the 
opposite side using the proper ropes or cables.  Just my 2 cents.

Gedas, W8BYA

Gallery at http://w8bya.com
Light travels faster than sound....
This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

On 1/12/2015 10:26 PM, mike repinski via TowerTalk wrote:
> I put a used one up last year. I assembled it and walked it up. Let me know if I can be of help. It gets pretty heavy with the antenna on it. Mike
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>   
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert via TowerTalk <towertalk at contesting.com>
> To: towertalk <towertalk at contesting.com>
> Sent: Mon, Jan 12, 2015 10:22 pm
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Universal 9-50
>
>
> Has anyone had experience with the universal 9-50 tower ?
> I'm installing one now at my home QTH and do not have the room to assemble
> On the ground, doing it the hard way, building up.
>
> Thanks,
> Robert N5FUN
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>
>   
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>