Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 4:41 pm Post subject: Towers maintenance checklist
Hello readers,
Most of you are proud owners of some type of estructures to support your aerials. On my case I got a couple of towers, one of them guyed and the bigger one is a square self-supported. I have both located on my property but in case of collapse some of the elements could fall down into the neighbour´s land. My radio shack, towers an antennas are fully insurance but I´d rather to eliminate risks in advance instead of giving all kind of explanations or even to argue with those nasty insurance´s inspectors.
I remember while on Flying School, we learnt to make a preflight checklist before take off. Instructors used to tell us that memory seems to be very fragile on some moments so we wrote all routine steps before the flight on a sheet that prevented ourselves to forgive anything.
Following this experiences, I found out on the net a maintenance checklist for radio towers that Mr. Rolin Lintag (an RF engineer in Little Rock, AR) takes on his daily work at radio stations.
I take this list on my monthly tower inspection and really helps me on my maintenance and hope all of you find it useful as well. Here you have:
General Site Conditions
---------------------------
Are signs posted as required?
Are security fences intact and locks operational?
Are there signs of soil erosion that may weaken tower and anchor bases?
Is the site accessible and free from excess vegetation growth?
Guy Anchors
---------------
Are preformed wire grips unraveling or can be prevented from unraveling?
Are safety wires installed on turnbuckles in Figure 8 pattern?
Do anchor plates have equal distribution of load on each side of the anchor rod?
Is there rust on cotter pins, clips, turnbuckles, anchor rods and plates?
Is the guy anchor protected by a well secured fence?
Tower Structure and Guying
--------------------------------
Is the guyed tower “plumb”?
Are there signs of rust or corrosion on any part of the tower?
Are bolts and nuts on tower members tight?
Are bolts and nuts on tower members tight?
Are all insulators are intact?
Obstruction Lighting System
--------------------------------
Is the tower light monitoring and alarm operational?
Any bulbs needing replacement?
Are the flash head units free from lightning damage or corrosion?
Is the tower paint flaking or fading as compared to the FAA color chart?
Lightning and Grounding System
-------------------------------------
Are grounding rods electrically and mechanically intact?
Is the wire cable from lightning arrestor to grounding system continuous?
Are ground rods present and properly connected to guy wires?
Antenna and Transmission Line System
---------------------------------------------
Are ice shields present or secure?
Are there signs of dents or bending on any antenna or transmission lines?
Are grounding kits of cables still intact?
Are there gas leaks specially at tuning adaptor slugs below the antenna?
Are there signs of overheating or warping on EIA flanges or connectors?
Are cable line attachments intact and all bolts and screws tight?
Are other antennas like STL Yagis or two way communications secured and intact?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rolin Lintag is an RF engineer in Little Rock, AR.
Hello Nandou!!!!!!
How are you my dear, sorry for the mistake; I did not mean to write in spanish. After reading your post, I just wrote what I had in my mind.
Ok!! returning to the issue..... I consider the guide to supervise the tower very useful but too proffesional. What I am trying to say is that I don´t know how many people on 11 meters have a set up with such a detail. Fernando, towers like that are normally used in other bands, since investing in towers like that is a big business.
I am not saying that operators on 11 should not have big towers, but for us it is not the main part of our station.
What people can do is take advantage of those aspects that can be applied to their set ups.
You´re right, cuñao. What I was pretending to give is just a guideline in general and as wider as possible. Obiously, going through the checklist we find many steps that could be missed out on most part of cases. I just take care of those points wich are related to my own installation. Useful for me anyway. 73s
P.D. Cuanto tenga la vespino ya os llamaré para ir a ¨tumbar¨ al Jarama...
Now Fernando, instead of giving so many advises to follow, what you have to do is finally putting up your antenna, because I have lost the account of days and months that it has passed since you bought your new tower (more than 1 year ago) until you finally rise the Hygain Explorer 14......will it be this coming summer? or maybe we will have to wait until next winter??..
I know that you always say that propagation is very bad, but we all like to have a good antenna at the top of the tower.
Anita, as you usually do you touched the point once more..
My installation is taking a long time first because I like things well done and second because we have had 3 months with rainshowers or snow most every day. I´m not in the mod for getting cold for just a hobby and specially these days when prop is really under low levels.
Anyway, 60% of installation has been done and other 30% will consist on digging a ditch throught the grass (Carlos, I got a new shovel waiting for you... ) to bury the pipeline with coax lines, switch box control line, rotor cable,etc...Set up the antenna with a crane won´t take me more than 10 minutes.
Appart of that, some special elements (lighting arrestors, high power balun, etc) for the tower has been ordered to USA and this would take an extra time to be delivered.
I´m doing everything by myself, putting a special care on all installation and big amount of euros on it... to come to an end: I´M TAKING MY TIME...
BTW: Hard workers are welcome anyway....can´t pay so much, sorry
30KR239 Fernando
30kr239@dxhunters.com
Hello all
I see that Fernando´s antenna is getting popular not because of him being on the air with the antenna, but because of the tower never finished.
Fernando, when I see you writting about the weather, it looks like if you were living in the North Pole my friend, and you are just 40 Km away from where I live and weather has not been that severe over here....I don´t know ....maybe the reason for nor having your antenna up is because you always take things sloooooowwwwwlyyy!!!! hihihihihihhi!!!!
I dont know if so much preparation as you describe will be good because it will always be the same "old" expl. 14 at 10 meters !!!!! Put up the antenna, I want to hear you with you new call in other places!!! where you can show us you Dxing skills.
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to come to an end: I´M TAKING MY TIME...
