Just to add a different perspective to the “never-ever run a crank-up tower
without watching it” commentary.
Sorry to hear about Phil's cracked bearing.
Like all things mechanical, nothing is without risk. Your wheel could fall off
your car the next time you go for a drive, or your transmission might crap out.
We still drive our cars. Regular maintenance, and good engineering can
minimize these problems.
These crank-up towers are machines that are designed to go up and down. Thats
what they are built to do. It still surprises me how many owners seem to leave
their towers up all the time. If not in use for an extended time, why not
crank it down? I have a wind-gauge relay device that actuates my tower to
bring it down automatically when the wind exceeds 30 mph.
I have had the US tower HDX-589mdpl crank-up for 18 years. It goes up and down
perhaps 15-20 times a month. I do NOT stand there and watch it. With proper
cable management there is no reason why the cables should get “snagged",
tangled or stuck. If your cables are getting stuck, you need to redesign the
management.
When the tower was at my home QTH I raised and lowered the tower every time I
used it. It was always kept cranked down. I used it so much I had significant
wear on the sheaves. (some have been replaced twice) I talked to US tower
directly about running the tower so much. The answer from the company was
“these towers are made to go up and down. We have some installed at skeet
shooting ranges were they go up-and-down repeatedly everyday”
Obviously things can break, but regular inspection and maintenance can mitigate
some of that. BTW…if the limit switches fail, the tower will not come crashing
down. What will happen, is that the belt will slip and burn out. (had that
happen once)
If running your crank-up tower is too “risky” for you to do when not standing
beside it, I respect that. The purpose of this response is to point out that
my tower has probably gone up and down over 1,000 times over the 18 years I
have owned it and I did not stand there and watch it every time.
73, de steve ve6wz
> On Jul 6, 2019, at 11:25 AM, Mac <libbysales@austin.rr.com> wrote:
>
> Rick i feel and have experienced the same i think as you have expressed.
> remote for me is just too risky, up or down.. i got so much crap passing
> thru several loops and then getting it on the ground in some sort of
> organized heap is its own problem as well..
>
> That all said, im the guy who is always late getting it lowered and damn that
> typically brings some excitement with it and the static build up on my
> elements when that drains off.. But even then i will not be a remote guy, my
> best effort is i have made up a hand held pendant up / down controller with a
> 100' cable, so i can roam around and check from various positions and sight
> lines.
>
> Also in my case the i really like seeing the limit switches and the traveling
> actuator moving toward or away from the actuator or limit switch [HDX-589
> model] so overall im trying to say for me and my situation and safety, ill
> still go out in the rain, gusty winds and take care of business.
>
> And let me add, at the outset i never gave much thought to the PULL DOWN
> feature, but the way and how my location is set up here, i truly have seen
> times when the "up lift" was such a force it took the mechanical effort to
> bring the tower down, usually of short duration, but it does occur in gusty
> winds.
>
> Best 73: mac/mc w5mc
>
> On 7/5/2019 9:55 AM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:
>> Someone once said, "communication is always
>> subobtimal" :-)
>>
>> Just to clarify, I was trying to say that Phil did
>> the CORRECT thing (IE not using the remote) vs
>> the "what if" aspect in case he had been using a remote.
>> My bad. I hope that everything is now clear.
>>
>> Rick N6RK
>>
>>
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>>
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