[TowerTalk] Tashjain Towers LM470 Remote tower raising control

[Wayne Kline]

Rick, I installed an  HDX56 a few years back.  The client  also purchesd the Remote  RMC1000  . He had a BIG deck and the tower sat at the far right corner ( read deck built over the foundation on one side .His shack had a big picture window with FULL sight of the tower both nested and fully extended .    Fast forward two yeas and a frantic phone call
Wayne the towers bent and  I am afraid it’s going to fall into the Pool .  I rushed over the next morning   YIKES   yes the top section was  off center 20 deg. The C-31 was almost moon bounce  How could this  happen. Seems he wanted to be able to raise and lowere the tower and transferd the  from his Radio room to his basement work shop.. WHY  ?????       wanted access  if he needed a new one on packet and was in the workshop. Loooooog story after a few attempts the bow and arrow made it through the lattis and two  pulls of increasing size  rope ( 5/8 ) a pully and  eye bolt was attached to a 80 ft oak tree  200 ft
A chain comealong   we were able to  releave enough tension   for the motor to lowere the tower. Dammage  broken limit switch and tore out stop block on one leg.

Needless to say  the remote is now on his shack desk     it could have been  MUCH worse
 Wayne ,W3EA
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From: Richard (Rick) Karlquist<mailto:richard at karlquist.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2022 7:30 PM
To: kj6y at aol.com<mailto:kj6y at aol.com>; k6mr at outlook.com<mailto:k6mr at outlook.com>; TowerTalk at contesting.com<mailto:TowerTalk at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Tashjain Towers LM470 Remote tower raising control

I have a UST HDX-5106 with the relay cabinet.  I also have an RMC-1000
remote control that I have never installed.  There are various hazards
related to crank up towers that make it risky to try to operate the
tower remotely with only a TV camera to monitor it.  Specific problems:

1.  The motor actuator relays can and do stick in the ON position.
They are just like the ones used in air conditioners that are famous
for sticking.  The first time this happened to me, I had to run in the
dark to the circuit breaker room to kill the power.  I then installed a
local power override switch at the cabinet.  Pretty soon I had another
relay sticking incident where I needed to use that override switch.

2.  A few years ago, I was convinced to replace the fluid in the
Hub City box with some super-duper lubricant having much less
viscosity.  Last month, I cranked up the tower on a 100 degree
day.  When I get all the way up, I like to back the tower down
a few inches just to make sure it is in a condition to be
cranked down in case of whatever.  I then went into the shack
(which is right next to the tower, like a radio shack should be).
Little did I know that the tower was running downwards without
any help from the motor, because the hot lubricant provided
very little resistance.  Luckily, the winch bearings were in
need of lubrication and made some squeeking noises that alerted
me to the movement.  I had to put on work gloves which I always
keep by the tower in case of whatever, and then slow down the
pulley from the motor to the Hub City box by applying friction.
I'm not sure how much damage would be caused by the tower
colliding with the base when it reached bottom.  I stopped it
before that could happen.

I also don't trust the 7/8" RG-218 coax to manage itself going up
or especially down.

The RMC-1000 remote control will continue to stay in storage.

YMMV

73
Rick N6RK



On 7/17/2022 3:27 PM, kj6y--- via TowerTalk wrote:
> The US Tower tower remote, RMC-1000  sells for$4999.95 at HRO.  The relay box consist of 2 motor relays,2 time delay relays, 1 power relay and 20 amp fuse and all the associated terminals and wiring.  All in a large  metal cabinet mounted on the tower.  The control box is simple as it just supplies
> Pretty simple device, but you have to think about failure modes.  The motor and winch are strong enough to snap the lifting cable if for some reason it doesn't stop when the tower is fully extended.  I've seen it happen with the manual switch since there is no protection other than the operator on the switch.  It makes a mess of the tower.
>
> Ken K6MR
>
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