[TowerTalk] Some Unique Heavy Lifting....

[john at kk9a.com]

After owning a station in Aruba I am familiar with the constant wind rocking the antenna back and forth 24 hours a day.  I had to be careful when working on the tower to keep my ropes and other light object from blowing into the neighbor’s pool.  There was no acid rain (or much rain at all during most months) however the salt in the air caused serious corrosion issues to the tower and aluminum antenna sections, especially aluminum was in contact with stainless steel. I used Phillystran guy cables and I had to change the Big Grips every four years.  Most of the station in the Caribbean are pretty modestly sized and they still require a lot of maintenance. I am not aware of any 80m beams in Zone 8 or 9.  So, I can appreciate the work and expense involved in building and maintaining a massive antenna farm in paradise.

 

73

John KK9A – P40A

 

 

From: Kurt Andress [mailto:andresskurt at gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2017 12:05 AM
To: john at kk9a.com; towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Some Unique Heavy Lifting....

 

 
 
That would be the obvious guess! But, what you don't know is that the location see's 25-35 mph tradewinds almost every day of the year. And, some of the towers are located close to the edge of a 500ft deep canyon, which creates it's own unique wind flow patterns, which torque the hell out of the antennas/towers on the edge of the cliff. 
One does not get to appreciate these things by reading the posts of Towertalk Pundits.....I get it because I have been up there in almost every condition it has seen, over several years, even while repairing the broken 80M tower, in real time, up there while it was blowing and raining like crazy.....
 
Your perspective may vary...mine does not, it is a very tough place to do this!
73, Kurt, K7NV
 
P.S. It sees wx patterns that bring sulfuric acid rains up from the active Big Island volcano, so corrosion is absolutely maximized.....we had to replace some severely compromised EHS cables to even safely climb and work on the 40M tower to install the newly rebuilt prop pitch rotator to get it on-line for the CQWWSSB contest.....we pulled that off ~3 hours after the contest started, before the Contest OP crew needed to be on 40M......did the same with Kimo, KH7U on the 80M tower....to get the new feedlines on the newly rebuilt and installed 80M yagi some of you might have seen......
 
Message: 1
Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2017 09:54:48 -0500
From:  <mailto:john at kk9a.com> "john at kk9a.com"  <mailto:john at kk9a.com> <john at kk9a.com>
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Some Unique Heavy Lifting....
Message-ID:  <mailto:f93416dbe540554501814ba071d67fb6.squirrel at www11.qth.com> <f93416dbe540554501814ba071d67fb6.squirrel at www11.qth.com>
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I am guessing that ice will not be an issue at KH6YY:)
 
John KK9A