[TowerTalk] Tashjain Towers LM470 Remote tower raising control

[Grant Saviers]

++

I have two HDX589s that NEVER go up or down without me being at the base 
observing and tailing the coax.  The motor is plugged into an outlet so 
relay or switch problems can be managed.  Trusting whatever cable 
standoffs or none IMO seems like rolling the dice.  The mess of a half 
down tower with cables jamming the sections is something I never want to 
deal with.

Grant KZ1W

On 7/17/2022 16:29, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:
> 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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