I notice that the local rental yard has a boom lift (Genie), I could just
throw a little more $ at this project and be up 40' hoisting and guiding
this already assembled mast into place (providing a hinge at the base
mount).

Before doing that I will check to see just how hard it would be to lift each
section up vertically by hand..... seems like lifting that last section with
40' of noodling extension might be tense. With the boom lift, two people
could do this easy one way or another, less tension and less cursing along
the way, plus the fun of playing with that boom lift.

Bill

zeno wrote:

Hi Gary,

Thanks for the thorough instructions. I am not sure I understand the pony
clamp, but I agree that I can see a problem trying to lift up the
combined weight of the last 4 of the 5 sections after the first 10 foot
section is in place. Where can I see an image of such a "pony clamp"? I
have two people trying to pull it up maybe it can be done by hand.

Bill

"Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr." wrote:

Hi Bill

After a serious fall a number of years ago, I am now terrified of
heights like you wouldn't believe.

Yet I am still able to put up 50 foot towers, push-ups and even
sectional guyed poles by myself with no problems.

On push-up poles, I lay them on the ground first, open them up, make
point to point guy ring measurements, mark the poles for their maximum
safe expansion and close the assembly back up and haul it up to the
roof.

The main body is guyed and finished off prior to doing anything else.
Using the formula to find the hypoteneuse the guys are marked for full
length, then remarked for each lifting stage of the operation.

The antenna or antennas are affixed to the innermost or highest part
of the mast, which is only extended at this time long enough to do
this operation. The ladder to reach them is set on the roof and tied
to the now rigid base mast section.

Before lifting, the guys for section one are clamped at their first
set of markings, which allows a little slack or you couldn't lift it
to the proper fixed height. After the clamps are in place, as you
lift the first section, the guys slide through the eyes until they
near the clamp. The mast is only lifted about 2 feet at a time and
the standoffs for the ladder line are installed or the coax affixed to
the mast with ties. Again it is lifted another 2 feet and a standoff
or tie or both are installed. Repeated until you reach your 10 foot
marking and this top section is then locked down solid.

Now clamps are installed to the guys for section two to the first
marking, the clamps for section one are loosened and clamps installed
on the second marking for the upper guys.
Here is where it helps to have 3 or 4 extra helpers to feed guys and
keep them fairly taught. But if you don't have them, the pole is not
going to fall further than the next set of clamps on the guys, or
about a 2 to 3 foot lean at this early stage, the lean gets less as
the guys get longer.

The second mast is pushed up, usually by bouncing it so the first
clamps of the section one guys can slide on the cables but still have
enough tension to hold the antenna upright for you.
Again, working in 2 foot increments, the standoffs and/or ties are
installed.

By the time you get section two up to maximum height, you will not be
able to lift the remaining sections by hand. It's not the weight,
it's the tension on the guys and floating clamps that are your enemy.
If your familiar with how a Pony clamp set works, I had a similar tool
made for lifting push-pole sections. A clamp is affixed to pole two
and to the main mast in two places. I simply turn the handle to lift
the pole about 8 inches, then lock it down, crank the tool back down,
let it catch the pole and unlock the mast and crank it up another 8
inches and repeat until I get to the two foot point. Then I install
the standoffs and/or ties or both. Then repeat again.

Once the whole assembly is at full height, the guys are then tensioned
to their proper rating. If your guys are NOT equal distance from the
tower, you will have to make adjustments to the tension settings to
maintain a perfectly vertical pole.

Many of your guys themselves can be used as antennas if you plan for
this before setting up the system.

I put up an 80 foot vertical single handedly using only 1 inch 10 foot
sections of interconnecting pipes. We had intended going up 100 feet,
but the pipe was not strong enough to hold itself without telescoping
and splitting, so we halted at 80 feet. It stood for 9 years
untouched and without problems. Taking it down was really simple.
One hit to the lower pipe with a baseball bat and the whole thing came
straight down on itself and finally stopped dropping at about 15 feet
of height and leaned over, the antenna did not touch the ground and
was salvagable.

TTUL
Gary