Tower hinge, would this work?
 

My idea is to make some sort of hinge so I could lower it over and
raise it. I know I mentioned it before but now seems to be the time I
need to do it. (My little boy is starting to find pieces of the
antenna in the yard.)

My thought was to dig a hole beside my current antenna a couple of
feet deep and in circumfrence. Place some 3 inch schedule 80 pipe
(one
for each corner) into the holw with a 2x2 or so piece of 1/4 inch
steel on top. On the end of the plate would be welded a few pieces of
black pipe the diameter of a hitch pin. There would be another piece
of 2x2x1/4 piece of steel with more black iron pipe on it. The black
iron pipe would in effect be the "hinge" part of the mechanism. (sort
of the way I made the fold down gate for my trailer).


Here is where I am having trouble. On top of the "top" plate, I have
some 2 inch black iron pipe. My first thought is two weld three of
these as "legs" on top of the top plate, then put my cut down
exisiting tower into this pipe, drilling a hole through each leg.
(The
new two inch pipe and the legs on the tower). Instering a grade 5
bolt
into this. I have also thought, I wonder if it would be easier to
just
put the three legs up and use u bolts to attach the tv tower to the
outside of the legs.


I would still need to climb part way up it or have the capability to
to adjust my sat dish. I cant figure out a good way to do it with the
tower leaned over.

Tower hinge, would this work?
 

On Wed, 20 Apr 2011 08:58:08 -0700, stryped rearranged some electrons to
say:

My idea is to make some sort of hinge so I could lower it over and raise
it.


Google "fold over tower" or "hinge base tower" to see what the rest of
the world does.

Tower hinge, would this work?
 

On Apr 21, 6:48*am, david wrote:
On Wed, 20 Apr 2011 08:58:08 -0700, stryped rearranged some electrons to
say:

My idea is to make some sort of hinge so I could lower it over and raise
it.

Google "fold over tower" or "hinge base tower" to see what the rest of
the world does.

Really cant get my head wrapped around most of the discription but two
feet in the ground for the supports probably isnt enough. We have a
30ft tower at work with a pretty light load Omni UHF antenna and it is
8 ft in the ground.

Jimmie

Tower hinge, would this work?
 

On Apr 20, 8:58*am, stryped wrote:

snip

I would still need to climb part way up it or have the capability to
to adjust my sat dish. I cant figure out a good way to do it with the
tower leaned over.

I assume you meant " part way up to have ...", so I'll offer an
approach to the satellite dish portion: You can make a very accurate
angle finder, irrespective of whether the tower is upright or tilted.
I did it virtually free.

Photocopy a protractor or print an Internet graphic of one and paste/
tape it to a smooth flat surface. For mine I used a waste chunk of
half-inch pine and the size -- 180 degrees' worth of arc -- is about
ten inches. I printed it up to that size on standard paper.

Paste the protractor so the vertex (the point from which the angles
originate) is on one edge of the board. Hang a weighted string from
the vertex. (I used dial cord; it's strong, smooth and thin.) When
the board is held vertical, the angle of the top or bottom edges of
the board are indicated by the angle mark crossed by the string.

The string is only a tenth of a degree wide so you figure I can set
angles pretty well using this crude, clunky device. (I used it to
install a C-band dish in the 1980s; I got elevation perfect the first
time and azimuth within a quarter-degree.)

Given that one picture is worth a thousand words, I have a graphic I
drew. I'm having trouble uploading it to my web provider but I will
email it to you if you like. You can post here or directly email your
interest to me at the "sobars" email address you see for me at
cox.net.

73,
"Sal"
(KD6VKW)

Tower hinge, would this work?
 

On Apr 21, 4:47*pm, "Sal M. Onella" wrote:
On Apr 20, 8:58*am, stryped wrote:

snip

I would still need to climb part way up it or have the capability to
to adjust my sat dish. I cant figure out a good way to do it with the
tower leaned over.

I assume you meant " part way up to have ...", so I'll offer an
approach to the satellite dish portion: *

snip


Given that one picture is worth a thousand words, I have a graphic *I
drew. *I'm having trouble uploading it to my web provider but I will
email it to you if you like. *

I have obtained mastery over my Internet provider and their
sucky software.

http://members.cox.net/markhamjf/ham...clinometer.jpg

is my graphic of the angle finder. I called it an "inclinometer."

Enjoy,
"Sal"

If you want, I can engineer the proper mount for your tower.

I believe that you need to take into account the height of the tower, the weight of the tower, if it is free standing or guyed and the weight of the antenna on top of the tower.

With the usually configuration of the 3 leg tower - I can't remember right off hand - but something like 16" between legs - and 10 foot sections - you would need to have 1/2 a yard of cement per each section - hence the hole would need to get bigger and deeper the higher you go.

The hinge is usually made out of steel 1/2 to 1 inch thick - depending on how tall and how much the tower weighs.

The first section is usually only 4 feet tall - not 10'

The tower sections would all need to be bolted together and would need to be polished before assembly if you use a old rusted tower section to ensure that each section would be conductive and not resistive - since you do not want corroded joints to reradiate harmonic's and you might even want to run a dedicated ground from the bottom to the top to ensure that the antenna's have a good ground source.

It isn't just as simple as digging a hole, welding some pipe and plate together and burying the whole thing in the ground.
\ The down side is - when ever you put carbon steel in cement it has a tendency to corrode / rust / fail at the point where it protrudes out of the cement.

If you could make a plate out of carbon steel, weld your tubes to it and drill and tap a bolt pattern to the plate and put stainless steel 3/4 - 1 inch bolts in the cement - 6 inches deep = it might last a very long time with no issues.

Tap Cons and masonary screws tends to pull out of the cement with time.

Making the ultimate tower base will probably cost more then what the tower is worth and the stainless steel hardware - unless you have a source will probably be cost prohibitive.

12' of 1 inch stainless steel rod would probably cost 100's of dollars.

The hinge is usually made out of steel 1/2 to 1 inch thick - depending on how tall and how much the tower weighs...!!!