How to work on a Large Yagi on top of tower?

[KM5PS]

A friend of mine has a Force 12 C-36XR antenna.  He has asked me to help him work on the large beam.  There are  two Baluns for the two feed lines.  One of the wires coming off the of one of the baluns has broke or came loose.  The baluns are to far out to reach.   I have never worked on a beam this size before.  I did help put it on his tower several years ago though.  I was just trying to get some ideas on the best way to go about it.  Lower it to the ground will probably be a last resort.  I have already put up our clubs Gin Pole on his tower a few months ago when we were doing some other antenna work.  It is a heavy duty Gin Pole.  Does anyone know if this type of yagi is made so it will pivot or not?  Any suggestion would be great.  A crane is out too. 

TIA
km5ps
john

[WB6BYU]

One method is to mount the yagi on a short horizontal stub, using the standard boom-to-mast
bracket in two places.  That allows you to loosen the U-bolts and rotate the antenna around
the stub until the elements are vertical, then pivot it until the boom runs parallel to the tower.
From there you just climb down the tower to reach the feedpoint.

This may require removing at least one of the top guy wires to rotate it far enough to reach
the feedpoint.

[K7VV]

You haven't said how high the tower is, but I just got done putting a 4 el Steppir up at 70' and things went much easier with two person lift truck!

[KM5PS]

The tower is 70 feet. 

John

[W8JI]

Lash the boom to the gin pole rope good, and loosen and tilt the antenna. Force 12 does not have a tilt feature.

Be careful if you are not experienced in this.

[KM5PS]

Thanks for the replies.   I was thinking of lashing it to the Gin Pole and trying to tilt it down.  I am hoping that Stan-K5GO will be available to help us out.  Stan and Lester K5LG are good friends.  This is the QTH that I will be working on this beam K5LG..  More suggestions will still be greatly appreciated. 


John
KM5PS

[W8JI]

Thanks for the replies.   I was thinking of lashing it to the Gin Pole and trying to tilt it down.  I am hoping that Stan-K5GO will be available to help us out.  Stan and Lester K5LG are good friends.  This is the QTH that I will be working on this beam K5LG..  More suggestions will still be greatly appreciated. 


John
KM5PS

I have done a great deal of this work in my life John, and I would use a gin pole at about half extension and a proper balance point with a lash that will not slide on the boom.

[K2QB]

One word of caution on using "your club's gin pole". Our club also has one and last year one of our members was using it to do some repair work on his tower with a non-ham friend. Unfortunately there was an accident and the non-ham was injured. A law suite entailed and our club was brought into it because we had provided the gin pole. We now no longer "own" a gin pole for anyone to borrow. I only bring this up as a warning to your club and others. Make sure your club has insurance and a lawyer available if you plan on loaning out gin poles etc.

[N4OGW]

If you are going to try and tilt it to reach the feedpoint it can also help to remove some of the center elements (the ones easily reachable from the tower) on the boom first. Also, be sure the gin pole is strong enough- if the mast already in place is long enough that may be easier to use (and stronger) rather than a separate gin pole.

Tor
N4OGW

[N4UM]

Try Googling "pvrc mount."