My suggestion, Kirk.
> I need some practical experience from some of you guys who
> have "been there." I currently have a Mosley TA-34 XL tribander on
> a 30 ft. tower. I am considering buying a new crank-up.
I had a Mosley TA-34 XL from the late Winter, 1992, until
January 1999. It was on a US Tower MA-550 crank up,
but spent most of that time at around 40 feet up.
Operated OK.
But I heard the talk in Dayton about antennas, and got to
wondering about my TA-34! Anyway, the cable in my crank
up broke (badly rusted, as I did nothing to maintain it !), and
down crashed the two raised sections, smashing through the
stop-plates at the tops of the lower sections into which they
were supposed to telescope.
This incident gave me the excuse to reconsider the situation
out here.
So now I have a Force C4, 40 meter rotating dipole, plus two
element beam on each of 20, 15, and 10 meters, and NO
traps!! The TA34 was donated to the local radio club for
Field Day and other uses.
Also, I now have a 20 foot mast atop the MA-550, with about 15 or
so feet of the mast sticking up out of the top section of the 550.
As the C4 weighs only 39 pounds, this, per others, was a safe
thing to do. Now I have the 550 cranked up such that the boom
of the C4 is now at about 60 feet high, as near as I can estimate
using my 30-60 triangle and doing a bit of trig, hi. Could go on
as high as 70 feet, were I to crank the 550 on up to its full
55 foot extended height.
And yes, the delta in performance between the lower TA34 and
what is up now is at least impressive to dramatic! And yes,
I do have the raising/lowering motor for my 550, a very worthwhile
expense as I need to lower my 550 whenever our trades kick up
beyond 35 mph as they will do out here occasionally. I got very
tired cranking the manual winch; seems to require hundreds of
manual turns to raise the tower up to 50+ feet height! And, the
40 meter dipole up that high is a wowzer!
Example, I have monitored 3C0R on all four CW and SSB
frequencies they have used up to now. Unfortunately, they
never QRZ by area of the world as yet, so absolutely no
chance of having them hear a Pacific station now. Way too
much European, and Eastern mainlanders calling, nearly
non-stop, hi. But every one is excited about the operation,
so our time out here will come. Our best chances for QSO
with them out here is very early morning for them: 0600 UTC
or so, 20 through 15 meters; that's evening out here.
Good luck on whatever you do.
73, Jim, KH7M
On the Garden Island of Kauai
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