On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 5:54 PM, Mike <nf4l@nf4l.com> commented on WC1M's post:
> Dick Green WC1M wrote:
>> Later, I spoke with K1DG, who had exactly the same experience with the boom
>> truss on one of his 4-el SteppIRs. He devised an ingenious repair method
>> whereby he used a snap hook attached to a fishing pole to snag the eyelet on
>> the boom end of the truss. So, if it lets go you can repair it, but not
>> without some difficulty.
> Having snagged it, then what? How did he get it close enough to repair?
Here's what I did:
The boom truss cable clamps that were loose were out at the element
end. When they loosened up enough, the Phillystran slipped out, around
the thimble, and ended up dangling from the mast. The thimble was
still in the eyebolt, but there was still a fairly big opening in the
eyebolt available.
I attached the loose end of the Philly with new cable clamps and a
thimble to a stainless-steel snap hook (like a carabiner). I taped the
snap hook open with a single turn of tape (Scotch 88, of course...this
IS TowerTalk, right?), connected a long piece of strong string firmly
to the tape, and threaded the string through the eyelets of a fishing
pole. I disconnected the Phillystran at the mast end to give me some
slack, then went "fishing" for the eye bolt on the SteppIR boom. I had
to extend the fishing pole with a long wooden pole to reach.
When I got a "bite" (it took about 5 minutes to maneuver the open snap
hook through the hole in the eyebolt), I yanked the string to pull the
tape off the snap hook to let it snap shut, capturing it (with the
Philly attached) on the eyebolt. I set the fishing pole aside.
Then I pulled the mast end of the Phillystran back up through the
turnbuckle and snugged it up. So now the Phillystran is connected to a
hook that goes through the eyebolt. It has held fine so far.
73,
Doug K1DG
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|