[TowerTalk] Tower maintenance person wanted - MN

[Alan Swinger]

Steve - Response per your two bullets:
- UST's tech did the cable/pulley replacement in 2010. I have all the replaced pulleys should I need them - they are all good per the tech who did the work. Cost for the job then was ~$2500 since the tech did another 4-5 jobs in the area and I got UST (Gary Smith - and/or bosses) to agree to spread the Tech's tvl costs. Latest est to send a tech here (no other jobs) to re-cable my twr is $7500!! I have the cable kit (($313)

- I am with you on the Psych matter - more of a Driver for me than the physics/mechanics of the cables.

- That said, I and all the rest of us who have US Towers and other crank-up towers need a qualified tech source to change out the Cables if and when they need it!

Surely there is a company and/or group of persons out there that can do this work at a more reasonable cost than what I have been quoted by US Tower!!?

Pls respond and 73,

Alan Swinger K9MBQ
Charlottesville, VA


-----Original Message-----
>From: K7LXC--- via TowerTalk <towertalk at contesting.com>
>Sent: May 15, 2016 12:46 PM
>To: awswinger at earthlink.net, fred.hurd at cox.net, towertalk at contesting.com
>Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Tower maintenance person wanted - MN
>
>>  - Cables last changed by a UST tech in 2010
> 
>    Which begs the question who did it and what  did it cost? 
> 
>>  - during 2014/2015 winter (~Dec 2014) cable at base of  tower jumped the 
>pulley (I guess due to ice) when I was lowering the tower. So,  cable was 
>riding on the Pulley axle until I could lower it to get at the  cable/Spring 
>end. Used several cans of pre-lube during this lowering process.  Once down, 
>I was able to Stop-off the cable and release the spring tension to  get the 
>cable back onto the pulley. Checked for broken strands, and only found  one 
>surface strand broken in the 8-10 ft of cable that underwent the sharp 
>bend.  Otherwise, cables look good and tower works all OK.  
>. . . thus my  concern, at least about the lower cable.
> 
>>  Comments?
> 
>    Industry standards are typically for wire rope in a  working 
>environment where it might go thru dozens or hundreds of cycles a day.  Normal ham use 
>is so intermittent that the cables don't get to work much, thus  my 
>recommendation to exercise a crank-up occasionally so that it actually does  some 
>work. 
> 
>    Your damaged spot was probably relatively small so  it probably wasn't 
>fatal even in the long term. I'm not going to discourage  doing PM like this 
>but sometimes it's more psychological help.
> 
>Cheers,
>Steve    K7LXC
>TOWER TECH 
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