No extraneous material here!
Well, except maybe for my opinions...
Heights is beautiful, but you gotta trust that leadscrew!
I'm a hacker and rarely spend much. Yes, I could, but where's the learning or
challenge.
By being modest in what I buy, there's a LOT left for beer, nuts, and ice
cream...
I have 40 ft of R-25 bracketed to my chimney. It works through all but the
worst pileups, with an old Thunderbird.
To raise, I use a four part block and tackle from the bracket to a tower leg at
the elevation equal to the elevation of the bracket, which is at about 22ft.
I've never lowered it, except for the initial test, but I'm confident it won't
be a problem.
The original plan was to mount a winch on the tower, with cable through a
pulley at the bracket, but, with three years service and no problems, the
incentive for that is diminishing.
I have bought hundreds of feet of R-25 over the past few years, at prices from
$20-$40 per section.
Yes, a few sections wanted some zinc paint, but none were more than surface
rusted. I've enlarged a few holes to reduce slop and I've redrilled a couple
of sections previously sawed off at the concrete level. Worse case, I enlarged
some holes a little and put galvanized carriage bolts in them, pulled up tight.
I leave it that way, as a 20ft section, for Field Day. It will last far
longer than I will.
I bought a knockoff tilt base at a hamfest, for about $100.
So the 40 footer stands proud, at just over $200.
I use 2" EMT for a mast, which comes down to about the 10ft level, which I can
reach it by climbing or from a ladder. If I had had another piece handy, I
would have come all the way down. When you join the EMT with couplings, drill
holes in the sections, so the setscrews will penetrate the tubing and make a
better torque connection.
Now, others have mentioned the attachment to a house wall. I did it once, in
an accessible attic, with just some simple reinforcement. No prob, but it
wasn't a tilter.
If you can get to the attic, some reinforcement would support the tilting. I
think my max tilt force is about 3-400 lb. I had no problem pulling the rope,
but it wasn't easy either.
It's an easy calculation, but I have forgotten the answer.
I can't prove it, of course, but I'm confident this setup will survive any wind
that can occur here, especially since half the tower is blocked by the house
and several big trees.
Terry, the dealers and superstation people won't love you, but this stuff does
not require big bucks!
If you want to go away from the house and use one set of guys, then tilting
with a falling derrick is easy. We do several every yr at Field Day, pulling
some with a winch and some with a tractor. With a little rigging, you could
pull against a tree.
Now, I've never done this, but if you could line things up to use a tilt pulley
up in a tree you could avoid the falling derrick. Just raise the tower,
connect the back guy, and let the lift line down. If you don't feel
comfortable with the rigging, ask around for help from an experienced
person...not necessarily a ham. High school trig is all the math you need,
even if you want to figure all the loads.
Once it's up, you'll love it, guaranteed!
Ask Steve about the Moseley...
73,
Wilson,
W4BOH
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