[VHFcontesting] W9ZRX June VHF Contest (Long)

[Jim Smith]

Dave

Google "Falling derrick" Might give you some ideas as to how to put up 
something higher.

A couple of Field Days ago I demonstrated the method.  We had a 40 ft 
Delhi tower with an AlfaSPID rotator, an old TH3 tribander, and a 
2m/70cm gain vertical mounted above the tribander.  I put the whole 
thing up myself, no climbing.  All the youngsters were impressed to see 
that a 70 yr old could do this.  (I think that they're also impressed 
that a 70 yr old can remember his own name, making it doubly gratifying.)

Anyway, just a thought.  It does take quite a while to rig.  The key is 
to use 4-way guying instead of 3.

73, Jim Smith	VE7FO

Dave Zeph wrote:
>  We ended up going with 32-foot of tower because
> 40-feet seemed more that we could "walk-up."  The base was anchored at the
> corners with 4 - 18" "Penetrator" earth anchors from American Screw Anchors
> that I saw mentioned on the Towertalk Reflector.  3 additional "Penertators"
> were purchased for guy anchors.
>
> 
> My long suffering xyl, Diane, and I rehearsed tilting up the tower plus
> antennas in our back yard.  It was obvious that 32-feet was a the limit of
> our strength, so I bought enough 1/2" Polypropylene rope to rig a 4:1 Block
> & Tackle, and a pair of Polystyrene Slings.  That was the best money spent.
> We also transported one of those 4-foot collapsible ladders could be used
> use as both a 13-foot straight ladder, and a 6-foot stepladder.
> 
> 
> 
> On Friday the first job was to raise the tower.  Both of us had spent a
> somewhat sleepless night wondering if we could do this without loosing the
> whole assembly.  The grass was tall, and moving the stepladder to walk-up
> the tower was very difficult.  However with the 4:1 Block & Tackle, it
> proved to be a snap.  We just walked the tower up to a convenient and safe
> angle, and then used the Block & Tackle to raise the tower with very little
> effort.  We had dreaded lowering the tower, and that proved to be even
> easier with the Block & Tackle.
> 
> 
>