antenna party

[W5GA]

Off to my brothers place in Colorado for an antenna party this after noon. Putting a full size 3 el 40 (~200 pounds worth, glad he's got a crane coming!) and a KT36 up on a 150' rotating tower. I can't wait to hear how that 40 plays!

[kf0rt]

Off to my brothers place in Colorado for an antenna party this after noon. Putting a full size 3 el 40 (~200 pounds worth, glad he's got a crane coming!) and a KT36 up on a 150' rotating tower. I can't wait to hear how that 40 plays!


We want pictures!

[W5GA]

We want pictures!
The wives (W5TAT and W0MOE) are both playing ground crew, which includes camera duties.

[KC2UGV]

The wives (W5TAT and W0MOE) are both playing ground crew, which includes camera duties.


:rock:

[KA9MOT]

Be careful!

[W3WN]

Be careful. And if anything falls, move out of the way -- fast!

Yes, definitely, pictures and a write-up.

[NQ6U]

Wear a hard hat!

[K7SGJ]

Shit, if I had my wife on the ground crew she'd tell me "okay, now that you've reached the top, take 4 steps to your right".

However, please do be careful, and have the crane crew go back via my place. put it on the Popes tab

[kb2vxa]

(~200 pounds worth, glad he's got a crane coming!)
"Wear a hard hat!"

[W5GA]

I'm here to tell ya, the view from 150' is pretty stupendous. And the scenery coming down from Wolf Creek Pass to my brothers QTH was simply breathtaking! This was not our first rodeo on the tower together (brother and I), although the first in about 20 years.
Some observations about putting this beast up in the air:
1. Getting hoisted to the 150' foot mark by a crane using a man bucket vs. having to climb a 150' tower is the only way to go. My brother is 71, I'm 57. We'd have expended a days energy just getting there.
2. Having mother nature's cooperation is of inestimable value. The winds of the current eastbound storm system started about 15 minutes after I came off the tower (last man down).
3. A full size 3 element 40m beam is an RLA (really large antenna!!!), with a whole bunch of inertia. More than about a 5mph wind would have killed the project.
4. It takes a really stout tower to support this, along with 3 phased KT-36's. Rohn 55 lends new meaning to the word stout, when the largest previous tower I'd climbed was 160' of Rohn 45.
5. The TIC ring style bearings make a really nice, easy on the feet place to stand. If you've ever climbed a tower, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, imagine standing on a 1/4" diameter rod with your full weight for 6-8 hours.
6. Did I mention having a crane hoist you up is really, really cool?

The crane guys were using this as their inauguration of a brand new crane, one that they hadn't ever even attached the jib boom to before. The crane operator was nervous as a sheep in a wolf pack about the whole deal. I'm talking serious sweat pumps here, running in high speed. Couple that with a bunch of hams that don't know standard crane commands, and there was potential for disaster. We equipped the crane op with an FRS radio, so we could talk directly to him...HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!.
Note: What you want, and what the crane op can do may be two different things because of what he sees. Example, we needed him to move the antenna sideways about 6 inches. He can't see what 6" looks like from the ground, so he has to guess. He can't really rely on the technology built into his crane, because it's not capable of that level of resolution. So, he moves it a "little bit" (his words). When he does that, we have to wait for the oscillations of the crane boom to stop to see where things really are. Same thing applies to "lower it about an inch", because of cable bounce.
When we were done, the crane op was totally exhausted from stress.
Being able to manually rotate the whole tower from the ground to allow clearance for the crane boom to enter/exit the scene on demand saved lots of man hours of potential repair. With all the hardware up, and two guys up, the tower is still easily rotated by one guy on the ground. Go slow, though. Getting it stopped again can be a whole 'nother story.
Having everything properly engineered on the ground before it goes in the air is MANDATORY. Luckily, my brother is an engineer with 50 years of ham radio tower experience...no worries. It all fit as intended, the first time.
Total time on the tower was about 4.5 hours to install the 40, and a KT-36 above it. Don't know how it plays yet due to wx here in southern CO. Thunderstorms, so everything is disconnected.

When everything was done, we all adjourned to the garage for lunch/807's etc. The most major event was dropping a single 3/8" nut.

GREAT FUN!!!!! MAJOR KUDO'S TO THE GROUND CREW FOR MAKING OUR JOB REALLY EASY!!!

On the tower:
K6XT (owner)
W5GA (younger brother)

Ground crew:
W0MOE (brothers XYL)
W5TAT (my XYL)
K0YG (ground crew honcho)
neighbors Joe and Kurt. Totally amazed at what was happening, but really good at stepping in where/when needed.

SUPER KUDO'S TO CROSSFIRE, LLC. Superb crane service!!!

I'll post pics in a bit.

[PA5COR]

I'm glad everything went smooth and nobody was hurt, just hoping the antenna's will do what is expected up there, i'm jealous now....;)

[W5GA]

Link to pic's.

https://picasaweb.google.com/112304972724973657085/3L40_KT36XA?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMi5t7OOzK3PWQ&feat=directlink

[NQ6U]

Way cool, Doug!

[w0aew]

I got vertigo just looking at the pix.

[K7SGJ]

Nice job you two. That looks like a large antenna. Hope it works well. I envy you guys, I haven't been up a tower in years, the last being a 500 footer am tower. Thanks for sharing the experience with the pix.

[KC2UGV]

Link to pic's.

https://picasaweb.google.com/112304972724973657085/3L40_KT36XA?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMi5t7OOzK3PWQ&feat=directlink

Looks like it was a fun day for all. I love the obligatory animal pics too :) Did you guys buy the crane op a 6 pack for the stress-relief?

[W5GA]

Looks like it was a fun day for all. I love the obligatory animal pics too :) Did you guys buy the crane op a 6 pack for the stress-relief?
807's = brewskis

[kf0rt]

Way cool job, Doug. Kickass all the way; very pro and yeah, I'm mega-envious.

But... tell your brother (for me) that if he can rotate that much steel and aluminum, he can also learn to rotate a digital picture. (Urp, sorry, a pet peeve.)

Really diggin' it, though... Iff'n you need a beer caddy for another job like that, lemme know. ;)

[NY4Q]

Very good. Thanks for creating this thread. He lives in some beautiful country and I loved seeing the pictures.