This article seems appropriate for the string currently in progress where
NF4L is seeking advice on winching up his tower. I have a very powerful
sophisticated system FOR SALE:
System to raise and lower a Rohn 45 tower that held several very large ham
yagi antennas and the ends of many wire antennas. The walking ?gin pole? is
a horizontal 50 foot section of Rohn 45. One vertical tower was 105 feet
long. They were connected with guy wires at three levels, around 100 feet,
70 feet, and 40 feet. The two sections are attached to regular Rohn base
plates. They are welded together in a 90-degree angle. The walking gin
pole functions as a lever to raise and lower the antenna tower. Two 2?
square bars about 2 feet long are welded to the plates, and extend a few
inches past the plates. Two similar 2? square bars about 2 feet long are in
the concrete tower base, and are welded to a fabricated and welded rebar
cage inside the concrete base. The two sets of square bars have holes
drilled through them and are connected with ¾? bolts, that act as hinges.
The first 10-foot section of the horizontal Rohn 45 tower is braced to the
first 10-foot section of the vertical Rohn 45 tower with four sections of
welded 2? angle irons. I have another identical Rohn 45 tower installation
that is 80 feet tall and has a 40-foot gin pole. It uses the same system.
I do not remember what that systems cost. I used salvaged steel, and most
of that installation cost was in labor for fabricating and welding. I would
like to sell two of the lay over units, each including the two sections of
Rohn 45, two base plates, and angle iron. Preferably, the buyer would buy
the system and use it as made.
The winch is a Beebe International W-200-5, 3,000 pound rating. I believe
it has a 25:1 gear ratio. It has a removable manual handle. I believe
Beebe is no longer manufactured. Ingersoll Rand owned Beebe, but it is out
of business. The closest replacement I found is a Thern brand model 482,
with a 26:1 gear ratio, 4,000 pound rating, and 300 foot ¼? cable capacity.
Grainger sells it for $1,524, item no. 3DNZ8.
The Beebe winch is connected to a portable Sweeney 5:1 gearbox with a ¾?
input and 1? output. It has a 2,000-pound capacity. I cannot find a
similar gear box for sale. I called Hydratight, 1-800-569- 6807, which is a
Sweeney dealer and repair service. They are not familiar with this model.
I found no model number on it. The Hydratight representative guessed a new
similar gearbox would sell for a few thousand dollars! I will continue to
shop around for more information. I bought it surplus from a machinery
dealer, and did not pay new retail price. It cost me $150 in 1990, so at
today?s prices it is worth about $250.
150 feet of 1/4? diameter aircraft style galvanized wire rope is wound on
the winch. It has a breaking strength of 7,000 pounds. When the tower is
laid over, the cable goes to the top end of the gin pole, through a snatch
block, and back to the anchor, a steel frame mounted in concrete holding the
gearbox. www.Amazon.com sells similar wire rope for $551.07 for 250 feet,
$0.60 per foot. It is their part number B0038YY358. Prorated, 150 feet
would cost $331, if they sold short lengths.
I power the winch with a Makita ½? drill, which is not for sale. You can
buy any ½? drill. Coupling the drill to the Beebe winch, I use the Sweeney
gearbox. It has ¾? input.
I had a custom ?drill bit? made with a ¼? square coupler that slides over
the Sweeney input. It cost me $25 in 1990. It would probably sell for $40
today. Coupling the Sweeney gearbox to the Beebe winch I had a custom ½? to
¾? adapter made. It cost me $10 in 1990. My guess is that it would cost
$20 today.
As explained above, the wire rope goes through a snatch box on the ?gin
pole?. I used a B-Special drop side snatch block, model 733- 9764. It has
an 8,000-pound capacity. I cannot find B-Special listed anywhere. It cost
me $108 in 1990. I did find other brands of similar capacity for about the
same price. They are imported, whereas the B-Special was American made,
which explains the same price today. I added an anchor shackle 5/8? screw
pin, with a 3 ¼-ton capacity, to hang he snatch box from the ?gin pole?.
Remember the gin pole is actually Rohn 45 tower. It is worth about $10.
The winch, wire rope, gearbox, couplers, snatch block, and accessories are
part of a system, and I want to sell them as a package.
90 feet of the 105 foot Rohn 45 tower and 40 feet of the 50 foot Rohn 45
horizontal tower section (gin pole) have been sold. 70 feet of the 80-foot
tower and 30 feet of the 40-foot horizontal section are for sale now.
The 80-foot tower has a 23 foot, ½ inch wall, chrome moly 4130 steel mast,
which easily handles three stacked yagis, currently 15 and 10- meter long
boom yagis, and a UHF yagi. The same type mast easily held a three element
40 meter Telrex full size yagi and a 5 element Hygain 205CA yagi, on the
105-foot tower, despite hurricane force winds. One of the two masts has
been already sold.
I also have another Rohn 45 fold over tower system for sale. I have ceramic
insulators, guy anchors, preforms, ¼? guy wire, turnbuckles, etc. for sale.
I also have several Hygain Ham II and Tailtwister rotators and control boxes
for sale. I have many parts, hardware, antenna current baluns, ¼? Dacron
rope, pulleys, shackles, etc. for sale. I have thousands of feet of 7/8?
diameter Prodelin 50 ohm hard line for sale, $1.999 per foot. I have many
connectors for sale to hard line buyers only. They are hard to find. Some
were manufactured by Prodelin. Others were custom manufactured by a local
machine shop. Talk to me regarding those details.
If you are interested in the above system, please call me, and make an
offer. If you are not interested, please spread the word to other hams. I
am downsizing and disposing of my ham contesting and DXing station. These
antennas and towers played fabulously, but I am too old and weak to continue
rigging and maintenance.
After posting the above for sale, I had some inquiries that I answered as
follows. The additional description might help you understand what is for
sale and how it works.
I am selling the winches and gearboxes, but would also like to sell the two
units for laying over the towers.
Each unit has two sections of Rohn 45 welded together in an L shape. In
turn, the vertical section is attached to the standard Rohn base plate
through its tubing. The horizontal section is welded to the base plate.
The vertical and horizontal sections are then braced by two angle iron
sections as diagonals, welded from section to section, to form a triangle.
Next, I welded two 2" bars horizontally on the base plate, extending about
2" beyond the edge. I inserted two more 2" bars vertically in the concrete
base before it set. The vertical bars were in turn welded to an iron rebar
cage inside the concrete. I ran thick bolts with washers and nuts through
the bars to act as hinges. I added grease fittings to the bars to lubricate
the hinges.
When assembled, one tower stood 105 feet tall and the horizontal section of
Rohn 45 was 50 feet long. The other similar tower was 80 feet tall with a
horizontal section 40 feet long. The 23-foot masts extended about 13 feet
out the top, so they could each hold two or three yagis. The horizontal
section is known as a walking gin pole. When laid over the 50-foot section
stood vertically with the pulley attached and winch cable run through it
back to the steel base for the winch. That gave me a 2 : 1 ratio for
raising, thus reducing the load in half.
The system works slick with no problems. I can raise and lower the towers
with many antennas attached all by myself. The only obstacle is
occasionally the moving guy wires at the sides get tangled in nearby brush
and tree limbs, which I keep trimmed. It helped to have my loyal wife walk
around while the tower was going up and down to watch for any problems.
I lowered the towers so the longest yagi boom rested about a foot above the
ground. As a safety measure, I rested the top end of the tower on a scrap
piece of short tower. That way I could walk or climb on the tower without
fear of it dropping or swaying. Then, I laid extension ladders against the
now horizontal mast or tower to work on the rotator, yagi, guys, wiring,
etc., near ground level, rather than climbing 100 plus feet into the air.
That was great especially in the winter when the wind chill could be near
zero degrees!
As an extra safety measure, I also ran an extra cable from the winch end to
the now vertical end of the gin pole section of tower, so it was stretched
tight when the now horizontal section of tower was at the one-foot level.
Thus, when cranking the tower over, I did not have to worry if I lowered it
too far and crushed the yagis.
The packages that I advertised include the four pieces of Rohn 45.
Separately, I have for sale the 80-foot tower with its 40-foot horizontal
sections. That means I have 70 plus 30 feet of Rohn 45 for sale, along with
one chrome moly 4130 steel, 1/4" wall, 2" OD, 23 foot long mast I also
have two Rohn thrust bearings on the tower.
I also have a Hygain Tailtwister rotator on that tower for sale. I have
additional Hygain Ham II rotators for sale. Plus, I have many parts left
from my multi-multi contest station operation and construction. I am trying
to liquidate all, to downsize and simplify my life. If you visit to
purchase the tower lay over system, tower sections, mast, etc., I can show
you the other accessories.
73, Bill
William N. Goodman, CPA -- K3ANS Residence: 765 Young's Hill Road, Easton,
PA 18040-6726
Home telephone: 610-258-5063 Office telephone: 610-253-2745
Fax: 610-253-9773 Cell phone: 484-241-6176
E-Mail: wgoodman@goodmancpa.com or k3ans@arrl.net
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