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I finally ordered the new tower today.

Whiplash-265 said:
sounds like a good time to invest in a nice 4 point harness CK :)
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I have the four point harness, You can only attach the harness once you reach the height you are going to be working at.


I guess you could attach the hook and un attach it every couple of feet to get where you are climbing to, but that might make more of a safety hazard than free climbing.
 
wavrider said:
I have the four point harness, You can only attach the harness once you reach the height you are going to be working at.


I guess you could attach the hook and un attach it every couple of feet to get where you are climbing to, but that might make more of a safety hazard than free climbing.
Click to expand...


That is exactly what you are supposed to do. You climb with two lanyards and one is to be hooked at all times.You reach up as far as you can and hook one,climb up,reach up and hook the other one and reach down and unhook the first one etc. Professional riggers tend to free climb to about 50-75 feet and then hook/unhook the rest of the way if they bother at all.
 
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mackmobile43 said:
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I have been posting all the pictures I could so far. I can't post pix of things that haven't happened yet. All in due time my friend, all in due time. The wife has agreed to take pix of the tower going up and me on it when it happens. I may even borrow one of the kids cameras to take up with me. NWIH I am taking my Canon DSLR up there.:D

binrat said:
Especially of Capt KW blowing in the breeze while unhooking the rigging from the crane.
Click to expand...

It might be a pretty ugly sight. No, make that it WILL be a pretty ugly sight. :D

Not sure if it will happen today or not. I have to confirm with the crane company in about an hour and a half. The temps are great, around 60 degrees but the wind is whipping up and they may not want to do it today.
 
Well the tower is finally up!! The crane arrived a bit late due to a previous job taking longer than expected but at least it arrived. It showed up at about 4:45pm and it was a race to get things done before dark. Sorry for the quality of some of the images. It was getting dark, the wife was taking the pictures with her camera and her camera does not take as good a picture especially in low light as mine does.


The crane arrives.

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Getting ready to lift. We attached two slings at about the 55 foot level.


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Testing the height versus reach limits. Maximum boom height at this reach was 80 feet before the limit was exceeded.


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Starting to lift.


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Up it goes.

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Putting in the first bolts.


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My father on the extreme left, me in the middle, and the crane operator on the right installing the bolts. There are four on each leg.


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Somebody had to go up and unhook the slings and lift cable.That somebody was me.

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Still going up.

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I was just up to the 55 foot level and the lowest antenna will be about another 10 feet above that while the 6m beam will be at nearly 75 feet. What I could see from 55 feet was a world of difference from what I can see at ground level. It looks as if I will finally be above the surrounding terrain in all directions. I'll get more pix tomorrow in daylight and some from the top whenever I get that far up.
 
Yeah....digging that hole sucks....I paid a couple young guys $30 bucks to dig mine...not worth a heart attack or busted back. :D

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Why is it the biggest guy in the bunch is always the one climbing the tower?
 
A few more pix of the tower now that daylight is upon us.

Overall view from the driveway.

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Straight on from the road.

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Close up shot of the top showing work platform at about 57 feet. Also the 21 foot mast fully retracted into the tower. It will be jacked up as antennas are added and will eventually be all the way up sitting in the rotator mounted on the bottom shelf. This will put the 2m antenna at about 77 feet, the 6m antenna at about 72 feet, the 12/17m yagi at 67 feet and the 10,15,20,40m beam at 62 feet right at the top. The overall height of the 64 foot tower is really only 61 feet due to overlapping of sections.


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Overall shot from across the road.


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That's it for now. I work the next two days but then I have another six days off so I just may be able to start getting some antennas up depending on the weather. I REALLY, REALLY want to get the 2m and 6m beams off the old tower and make new mounting plates for them to fit the bigger mast before mounting the HF antennas at the bottom.
 

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