The AM Forum

Today I was able to get a tower and antenna down with the help of members of the Pocatello, Idaho ham radio club. My neighbor drove me to Pocatello with his flat bed truck and pulled a trailer for his bucket loader. It was about one hour drive north of Preston. The tower was lowered to its nested position and the tribander (Mosley CM-33) was disconnected from the mast and lowered using a Gin pole. The tower was tied with two ropes to a tree and was hinged to the ground with the aid of the bucket on the tractor. The tractor also lifted the tower on to the flat bed truck, its a US Tower TX455 weighs about 700 lbs. Hope to get it in the air soon

Joe   

Hi Joe,

Nothing like a plan coming together!  The installation looks great and I am sure you will do well with the new beam.  Now I need to get my TA-33 back up in the air.

Hope all is well.

73,
Joe, W3GMS

My tower is also back in operation. Some welding repairs and all new stainless cables for the crank up/down sections and even a new motorized winch for the tilt-over operation.

Tower is only up about 1/2 of it's full height in this old picture:

(http://amfone.net/Amforum/gallery/25_08_10_07_11_22_13.JPG)

Last year I was working the 6 and 10 meter Fall openings with the tower fully nested. Now we can really dance.

Hi Joe,
I'm glad too that all came down OK. Margie and I are doing fine and we are keeping busy. Joe I hope all is well with you and the family, I still remember walking around with you and your wife early morning at Deerfield a few years ago.
Pete nice set up looks good. Like you I know not to climb a crank up tower..... what electric winch did you use for tilt over functionality  and do you have a photo of the set up? I need to do that fabrication as part of the base configuration
Joe   

On my tower, there is a roughly a 10 foot stationary post assembly that is anchored to the cement base along with 2 struts bolted to the post assembly and anchored to the cement. The cement base is roughly 7 yards of concrete and re-bar, and below the concrete is roughly a ton or two of blue-stone rock. The post assembly has a hinge plate on top and the tower tilts at that position. I believe yours pivots over at the ground level.

The new tilt-over winch is a Dayton 3VJ63. The crank-up winch is the U.S. Tower MD-75 with the 1 HP motor.

This isn't a great photo but it shows the tower fully nested. I'll try to take some photos over the next several days.

(http://amfone.net/Amforum/gallery/25_03_07_09_11_28_45.JPG)

Tilt-over Winch:
(http://productimages.grainger.com/is/image/Grainger/3VJ63_AS01?$productdetail$)

Here's a picture of the MD-75 winch (not my tower):

(http://bellsouthpwp.net/k/4/k4zzr/tower19.JPG)

Yes you can

Glad you and Margie are doing fine and very much looking forward to working you with your new lash-up.  Yep, Martha and I are doing great.  I remember finally meeting you and Margie at the best Hamfest in the world, Nearfest two springs ago.  We did make it back up for the spring meet this year but unfortunately won't be able to make it for the fall Nearfest. 

Enjoy your retirement! 
73,
Joe, GMS 

Joe (BWO) congrats on landing the tower safely. Hope the project goes together easily. I spent a couple of weeks this summer rebuilding a hex beam, replacing hardware, installing new cables, and grinding and painting a few rough spots on the tower. After looking things over I decided to keep it simple and cabled the tower to lift only one section. That puts the Hex beam at around 50 feet (20ft +18ft +4ft nose section +10ft mast above the tower) where it plays very nicely. I've had a lot fun on the upper bands since finishing that project up! Hopefully, the fall and winter seasons will bring even better propagation!

Keep things safe there as you get busy putting it all together!

Rob W1AEX

That hex beam at 50' should work very well. I played around with one a few years ago that was only half as high and worked west coast with 100 watts of SSB on 20 meters. If I had something to put it on, I'd build one.

Yes, the Traffie hex beam is quite happy at that height Shelby. Much to my amazement, I had no trouble making contacts on 20 meters with the hex sitting on a 3 foot post out back. While chatting with Mike Traffie he explained to me that the usual ground effects are minimized due to the very tight end-coupling between the elements. I've found that it seems to work perfectly for me anywhere from 30' and above. The lift to 50' allowed my 2 meter and 6 meter beams to get above the 40' mark where they are also very happy. You should definitely build one or get your hands on a used one if you can pry it away from someone!

Rob W1AEX