in the process of putting up a 104 foot Delhi, gonna guy it in four places,
first starting at the 64 foot mark and then roughly every fifteen feet or
there a bouts - placing two 10 element 2 metre twisters by cushcraft and the
mounting kit at the top because I wish to sideband contest 73 tom/va3tvk
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Thomson" <jim.thom@telus.net>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 7:26 PM
Subject: [TowerTalk] yearly maintenance checks Re: Preforms
> Maybe so and maybe not. Ice storms have take down perfectly good tower
> systems. So have high winds that were outside the norm for an area.
>
>>
>> You know.. we see this advice all the time: "It's time for your annual
>> spring tower check".. but I wonder.
>
> ## time to do the annual check up is in the late summer/fall... not after
> the winter has come and gone.
> I'd do it at least twice a year, before the snow starts flying..and again
> in the spring. You can see a lot
> just by using a spotting scope on a tripod. It's amazing the detail I can
> see with 20 x 80 binoculars on a
> tripod, or my Celestron C-90.. 90mm small scope. The scope is a small
> thing, optically folded back on itself,
> and really short in length, weighs zip. Then the camera can be put on the
> end of it. I also have a special clamp that
> slides over the window glass of any car/truck, that's perfect to stabilize
> a camera/scope/binocs.
>
> ## One of the fellows here in town had a tower cam mounted to the
> rotating mast. Painting towers orange/white
> [or sky blue] is a pita. Once that paint starts peeling, it looks
> bad...and no fun to repaint. That cold galvanize is the
> most that should be needed for minor surface rust, etc.
>
> ## IF your ehs guy wire shows a lot of surface rust....time to replace
> em, not repaint them. In order to paint them, you would
> have to undo the turnbuckles and 1st install a temp guy wire. Why
> bother, just replace all of em.
>
> ## I use that marine grade never seize goop + small torque wrench's all
> the time. Most folks have no clue as to how much torque they have
> on nuts/bolts etc. 95% of ham have no clue how much tension they have on
> their guy wires. I have seen everything from really sloppy/loose,
> to WAY over tensioned. One guy wire failure anywhere, and poof, it's all
> coming down. These rotating towers are what really freak me out.
> There is nothing at all to absorb the torque. One fellow posted on here
> year ago, who had 4 x side mount swinging gates..and a 40m yagi on top.
> The gates were in the worse possible orientation one day.....and all 4 of
> em pointed in the same direction. Wind got up..and produced a massive
> TQ on the tower, and even with multiple sets of guy wires, one leg sheared
> at the base.
>
> ## For towers <120' tall... the strongest thing I can envision is a heavy
> duty self support tower....with the addition of guy wires on it.
> Adding TQ compensation to any yagi goes along way to solving basic
> problems.
>
> later...... Jim VE7RF
>
>
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