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

[Patrick Greenlee]

Tom, There are ways to erect a tower besides one guy walking it up. With 
a gin pole, some ropes, etc and and having watched the You Tube videos 
on the falling derrick method one guy can erect a 40 foot tower slowly 
and carefully under full control with a reasonable load on top to 
include a mast, rotator, antenna, coax, control cable etc.

Check with experienced folks when you know the specific tower you want 
to raise to see that your raising project is provident and not outside 
the envelope of safe and sane practices.

I have a Hy-Gain Hy-Tower which is a multi-band vertical comprised of a 
24 ft triangular tower base section of galvanized steel lattice tower 
topped by a series of smaller and smaller telescoping aluminum tubes to 
an overall height of about 53 feet. Hy-Gain says one guy can walk it up. 
I'm 6'2" 220 lbs when I tried.  With the help of a similar sized friend 
we struggled some but got it done. A subsequent down and up with three 
people wasn't much better due to not enough room for all of us to be in 
a good position.   There are several stubs to be tuned so it needed to 
come down and up many times.

I designed and installed a rig (with a hand crank winch) that is easy to 
set up or take down and allows lowering and raising the tower with 
relative ease single handed.  Similarly, using the falling derrick  
method you should be able to raise and lower a 40 ft tower with 
installed tower top "stuff" single handed if needed. A second person is 
always handy especially if they are well practiced with the falling 
derrick method or "rigging in general."

Study the falling derrick method.  Practice on a shorter section of 
tower with no antenna, mast, or rotator to get used to what goes where 
and when.  Get a second person if available, especially if they are "old 
hands" at this.

Give it a whorl.  One guy can do a lot after you know how and take your 
time to be safe and follow the plan.

Give it a go!

Good luck to you on your successful tower installation.

Patrick   NJ5G




On 3/4/2015 10:27 PM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:
> 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
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