I have a Force 12 LPT1242. I used it for a couple of years at my
previous QTH. It's now used every Field Day. You can crank it up and
down with a reasonably high torque power drill. I went through 3
drills before I found one with suitable torque, but once you find the
right one it goes up and down with ease.
One thing to consider, though, is that antennas look much bigger when
close to the ground. I now have a 54' lattice crankup tower and I
only crank it down for windy weather. The antenna is much more
intrusive when cranked down. Most people don't notice it when cranked
up. When I first installed it, my neighbor across the street
complained like crazy about the impact to property values and such.
He moved 6 months later and sold his home for the asking price of
$999,000. The new neighbors never even knew my tower was there until
my wife asked them about it a couple weeks after they moved in.
On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 6:01 PM, Rick Karlquist <richard@karlquist.com> wrote:
> I have an MA550 with a 2 element SteppIR on a 50 ft wide
> lot in an expensive silicon valley area, and no complaints
> from neighbors. I have the motor winch. It is extremely
> reliable even after 25 years. The hand winches make a lot
> of racket from the ratchet. If you insist on hand winching,
> get a worm gear winch. Another thing you can do is get
> a hand winch but turn it with a drill as described here:
>
> http://www.n6rk.com/drill_adapter_for_winch/drill_adapter_for_winch.html
>
> You need to look for a quiet drill.
>
> The 2 element SteppIR is very clean looking, and you can
> even add the 30/40 trombone dipole, without too much extra
> visual clutter. I would do that except I will be selling
> the QTH soon.
>
> Rick N6RK
>
>
> Derek Cohn/WB0TUA wrote:
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>> I have finally decided to get off my butt and see about getting a tower
>> put up. I live in an inner ring suburb in the St. Louis, MO area with not
>> much property so I'm looking at neighbor pleasing options.
>>
>> Two towers that I'm considering are:
>>
>> * US Tower MA-40 with a free standing base
>> * Force 12 LPT-1242 bracketed so it's free standing
>>
>> For low visual impact antennas, I am considering the Optibeam OBW10-5,
>> Force 12 C3SS, or Cushcraft MA5B.
>>
>> I'm looking for advice....
>>
>> My neighbors are reasonalby supportive but I would like to crank down the
>> tower when I'm not using it. I'm a reasonably healthy 47 year old and I'm
>> wondering if those towers are easily cranked down. I know that the US
>> Tower has a motor accessory but I'm trying to keep it simple to avoid
>> failure, maintenance, etc. Does anyone on this list have one of these
>> that they crank up/down manually? Is it easily do-able for a healthy guy?
>>
>> Are there any other neighbor friendly tower options that I should
>> consider? Are there any other antenna options I should consider?
>>
>> Thanks for any advice you guys can give me,
>>
>> Derek Cohn
>> Morse Telegraph Club - Alton Chapter
>> Office UD, Sine DJ
>> Amateur Radio Station - WBØTUA
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>
>
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