You are so right about your feet and legs. And when you are 60 young
anything over about 15 or 20 feet high is getting harder and harder to get
up and down. I got hit by lighting in the spring and I have not got the
antennas back up yet. The rain that we have had here in Oklahoma and now
that the rain is over the wind is coming down the planes. I am trying to
get a dual band vertical and a 6 meter beam and a 2 meter beam up. O well
this to will come to pass.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 10:31 PM
Subject: Re: Tower instillation question
Bob,
Yep, I know. Some of the free standing jobs are hard to climb and super
hard on your feet if you are on the tower for any length of time. Something
to check out before buying, that's for sure. I about wore out my climbing
cowboy boots I used for climbing one day. I was on the tower for a total of
8 and a half hours during a Saturday. Not straight, of course, but one
stretch was a good 4 hours. My feet hurt so bad by the end of the day. I
also climbed the thing about a dozen times when first putting it up working
on the antennas. My arms hurt for three weeks. I thought I had ruined
something. I don't even want a crank up any longer unless I get a big
motor, too. I would prefer a 100 footer with at least the top 30 feet
rotating and a tilt over base. Now we are talking real concrete pads and
money all the way around. We had a guy in western Colorado once who, back
in the Vietnam days, ran nothing but overseas phone patches on mars
frequencies. A friend when and eye balled his tower and antennas but the
guy wanted too much money for the whole system. My friend would have needed
a Crane and several helpers. This was a 130 foot telescoping rotating pole
right down to the ground. He had 6 over 6 for 20 meters, 7 over 7 on 15
meters, and 8 over 8 for 10 meters. It would nest at about 25 feet but with
the stacking arrays, it didn't do much good to crank it down because the top
antenna was still way up there. It also had very comfortable hand and foot
holds for climbing if need be. I asked my friend his call because I was
familiar with all the big DX and contest people in Colorado in those days.
My friend told me, I forget what it is now, and I said, I ain't never heard
him on the air. My friend then told me it was because the guy only ran
phone patches on the mars frequencies. I have a DX friend, well, he has
been a big contester for many years, and for a long time he used to have a 4
element 40 meter beam on a 150 foot rohn 45G tower. Wow. I could work
Europe at 2:30 PM during contest weeks with my 2 element 40 meter beam at 70
feet so I cannot imagine the things he could hear. He said he loved the
antenna but he was getting tired of it because at 150 feet in western
Colorado, the wind damaged it all the time and two or three times a year he
had to pull it down and work on it. Free labor in the ham community these
days is hard to come by with them big towers and antennas. W0MJ in Missouri
at the time, had a 190 foot tower with a 2 element 80 meter beam on it. The
day he and his buddies were pulling the big antenna up to the top for the
first time, the wind came up just as they reached the top and were
attempting to clamp the huge antenna on to the 6 inch I D mast he was going
to use. The big antenna began to swing in the wind and when that happens,
all you can do, or best be doing, is get out of the way. It banged against
the tower and cracked the freaking boom. The antenna was down the rest of
the summer while he fixed the boom. They got it up for the next spring and
winter contests. He was working Europe on side band in the middle of the
afternoon. I think his name was Randy. I'd sit and listen to him some
nights working Europe on phone. He would be giving them 20 to 30 over S 9
signal reports and if I heard them at all, it would be S 3 or 4 or S 5
signals. Of course, my big 80 meter antenna was a three way switchable
quarter wave sloper at 50 feet so what do I know?
Phil.
K0NX
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob - KA5ETA" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 8:28 PM
Subject: Re: Tower instillation question
> Phil I have the rhon BX tower and I wish I had rhon 45. The BX has 3
yards
> of concrete under it. But the thing about the BX tower is that it is very
> hard to clime.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 3:25 PM
> Subject: Re: Tower instillation question
>
>
> If you use a punch-in base, you can actually go without concrete. A
friend
> has a punch-in base with his 132 foot guyed tower. The trick is that
first
> 25 to 30 feet but once the guys are on and tightened up, it is fine. I
had
> less than a yard of concrete under my 65 foot tower here in Colorado. Oh,
> by the way, I asked my friend if the tower sank any. After many years, he
> only noticed about one inch of drop. He had a tribander on top and a 2
> element 40 meter beam. Self supporting and or crank up towers is
different,
> of course, and you best be planning on spending some bucks on the concrete
> base. After fiddling around building guy cables with clamps and
insulators
> and cutting that thick stranded cable, however, I'd never go back to a
guyed
> tower but would put the money into the concrete base. By the time you get
> done with good guy anchors, cable, clamps, turn buckles, and tork bars, go
> free standing with a big base. It's worth it in the long run.
>
> Phil.
> K0NX
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brett Winches" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 2:14 PM
> Subject: Tower instillation question
>
>
> > For a 50 foot guyed and non guyed crank up tower, what is the
> > recommended concrete base dimensions (minimum or maximum)? =20
> >
> > ###Thank you!
> > Brett Winchester=20
> > [log in to unmask]
> > ICBVI -- Reading Services
> > P O BOX 83720
> > BOISE IDAHO 83720-0012=20
> > 208-334-3220-104
> > 208-639-8386 DID
> > 208-334-2963 fax
> > ###
> >
>
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