[TowerTalk] Tower Build

[Roger (K8RI) on TT]

I realize, mine is a single instance. Even in my 60s I was in better 
shape than many close to half my age, climbing towers and flying 
airplanes..

  I put up a second guyed tower.  A good, sturdy, 100', 45G with 
occasional help of local hams serving as gofers, or pulling on the rope 
to the gin pole. In days gone by, I did maintenance on a couple of 
systems.  The 45G was rock solid and the old, skinny tower was beginning 
to appear a little less than straight, so I took it down.  I was happy 
with the big array on the 45G, but a flock of cormorants decided to use 
my 7L C3i 6-meter Yagi @ 115 feet  (give or take) as an overnight stop.  
They broke the boom truss, which fell down on the driven element of the 
TH-5.

Then low and behold. Nature threw me a curve and I could no longer 
climb.  By the time I found someone to take the big array down the Th-5 
was in serious need of lot of TLC.  I used Phillystran for a new boom 
truss on the 6-meter Yagi.  Let's see those big birds stand on that<:-)

The 100' 45G is still standing, but it only serves to support half wave 
slopers on 75 and 40, with a half sloper on 160.

There are many good reasons for installing a guyed tower and many for 
installing a crank up and fold over.  There are probably just as many 
reasons not to install one either.

The majority...Majority? Perhaps I should say, "most" hams I know and 
hams I see at swaps, should never set foot on a tower for their sake and 
in many instances, the tower's sake.  I wonder if they ever heard of 
exercise and a good healthy diet.

In both types of tower the question is, "Will it meet the ham's needs" 
and can he/she maintain it properly, or have connections that can get it 
done.

I added a crank up, fold over LM-470 as the most likely candidate for 
getting the tribander up.
I might even stick another Diamond, or Comet duobander on top.

A crank up and fold over for a given height and antenna wind area, is 
larger, much heavier has a lot of moving parts and requires one 
humongous chunk of concrete for a base compared to a guyed tower. 
However the XYL might prefer the expense to having guy anchors around 
the yard.

I enjoyed climbing and figured I'd be climbing for decades

73

Roger  (K8RI)

On 7/2/2015 6:40 PM, Big Don wrote:
> Before summarily blowing off a guyed configuration, it would be worth
> browsing thru the TowerTalk Archives for all the problems folks have had
> with winches, cables, pulleys, coax pinches/tangles/fatigue, sections
> jammiing, including unhappy motor electronics (today's stuff).
>
> http://lists.contesting.com/_towertalk/


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