[TowerTalk] Aluminum towers -- can you really "walk one up"?

[Richard (Rick) Karlquist]

On 3/4/2015 7:53 PM, Tom Cox wrote:
> I keep seeing ads for self-supporting aluminum towers that are so light
> that one person can "walk up" a 40-footer with a hinged base. Of course,
> walking one DOWN might be more interesting, unless one has ropes,
> blocks, and a team. Can walking one up really be done, even with light,
> VHF-UHF verticals and/or TV antennas? It just seems a tower light enough
> to walk up can't be strong enough to STAY up.
>
> I can't afford a motorized tilt-over or telescoping crank-up, unless
> it's used, and even then, it's unlikely, on my retirement income. All I
> want to tackle is 30 to 40 feet. Should I forget about a tower
> altogether, or buy a section of Rohn 25 a month, or... what?
>
> 73,
> Tom, KT9OM,
> NW Middle TN

I bought a bunch of 10 foot sections of 11 inch wide aluminum
tower used, don't know the manufacturer.  I use this to put up
a 2 element SteppIR for Field Day.  It also holds 40 and 80
meter inverted vee wires.  The rest of the year, I
use this as an extra tower for DX'ing and contesting.

I start by walking up just 20 feet (2 sections) of this tower
with nothing on the top, to be used as a gin pole.  3 sections
would require double the effort.  I'm not strong enough to
comfortably do that.  A really strong person or two ordinary
people might be able to do that.  But I enter field day in
the 1B-1 class, where you only get one person.

I then use the 20 foot gin pole as a falling derrick to raise
a 30 foot gin pole.  With the 30 foot gin pole upright, and
the 20 foot gin pole laying down, I add two more sections to
the tower on the ground, making it 40 feet long.  I then add
the 2 element SteppIR to it.  I use a tiny HD73 rotator, which
is the only rotator that will fit inside this skinny tower.

Finally, I use the 30 foot gin pole as a falling derrick to
raise the 40 foot tower with Yagi.  The force on the rope
is about all one person can handle.

All of this uses a base consisting of a metal plate held
with spikes driven into the ground.  Of course this tower
is guyed (with "truck rope").  It has survived many
storms.

Another data point is that I have a 50 foot Glen Martin
aluminum tower.  I tilt that up (with no antenna) using
a 20 foot wooden gin pole and tie the pull up rope to a
vehicle.  The antenna then goes up on a Hazer after the
tower is erected.  The idea of walking up the Glen Martin
is a non starter IHMO.  I am maxed out just lifting up
one end of it.

Aluminum tower, even used, is not cheap, and neither is
a 2 element SteppIR.  Can't help you there.  OTOH, I
do see 40 foot crankups going used for practically nothing
(even free haul it away).  You just have to get lucky
and be ready to buy it as soon as you hear about it.
That might be your best bet on a budget.

Rick N6RK