Tower lowering questions

[KE3WD]

  Sop far i think the obvious has been missed.

climb the tower and  loosen the clamps and   let the  30 foot mast  slide down
to as close to the  top of the tower as possible.
reduce the  top heavy effect...

duh

"Reduce the top heavy 'EFFECT'" by hanging more than 200 lbs of human being off the top end of a tower that features 4 foot rods sunk into the ground with no concrete...

[K7MH]

I'd first establish a "bail out" procedure

If any one person yells "RUN", everyone is to do exactly that!!

[WA8MEA]

All is done.  All is well.  Could not have gone any smoother.  My neighbor was right all along.

Those rods didn't even budge a fraction of an inch out of the ground!  But is was still nice to have the logger chain as a precaution.

(BTW - Lowering the mast pipe would have meant dangerous and unnecessary tower climbing.)

This one young man who was helping (he's a freshman or sophomore in college), it's really the first time I've stood next to him. (He's either coming or going in and out of the house with my son, so I've never really had a good look at him.)  Anyway, this is a giant of a young man!  I asked him if he played football in high school.  He said, yep. (Obviously.)  I said; "You must have been the entire offensive line!"  He replied; "And defensive line."  I immediately gave him the nickname "Mongo". (For you "Blazing Saddles" fans....)

This young man could have done the job himself.  I forgot how much my son said he could bench press.  But I think it was two of me....and I'm a pretty big dude.  But he's my new go-to tower man.

The biggest problem was the coax and a defective connector.  I had hardline on there and was simply going to swap out the antenna.  Until I found the hardline was loaded with water and totally corroded!  Made me so mad, that hardline wasn't that old.  But that fiberglass antenna just crumbled and allowed water inside and down through the coax.  No wonder it wasn't working right.  So I had a good supply of RG-8M on hand and used that.  The first connector decided to break....defective.  Second PL-259 went on without a hitch.  Wrapped the coax to the mast pipe and raised her back up in a matter of minutes....anchored her down and started climbing it to put the dipole back in place!

I say an Arrow 1/4 wave two meter ground plane and RG8M coax is a trade UP from a dual band Comet with wet and corroded hardline.  I sure am hearing a lot more.  Folks on the mid-range repeaters say I am sounding MUCH better.

A good day.  I will be sore tomorrow.  But that's why God made Advil....

73, Bill

[K8AXW]

 

[KB1GMX]

I have 30ft o Rohn 25 bracketed to the side of the house and the tilt base set in a concrete
24" by 5ft deep.  The bottom foundation is rebar and a tower section in the concrete.  The
base walking is not a concern.  All up height is about 38ft with the top being several VHF
beams for 6, 2 and 432 plus the hamIV rotor and mast. 

When I tilt/lower that I use a 20ft boom as a derrick to lower it and the rope actually grabs
the  tower at the 22ft point.  The ropes are braided dacron 1/2" run though compound block
and tackle as the peak weight (force) on the rope is about 760 pounds when the tower is at
about 45 degrees.  The other tie point for the ropes are the chassis of my truck on the other
side of the house.

This works for the once to twice a years lowering for changes and maintenance.

In my case walking it down would be impossible as at 60degrees the only grab point is about
10 ft up the tower from standing and maybe 8 ft from the base all the weight (over 200pounds)
is 25ft further out there is force multiplcation there so at that point one would be trying to support
due to leverage over 500 pounds.  That is unsafe.

Allison