"John Ferrell" wrote in message
...
I have a Cushcraft A3 beam on a crank up/tilt over tower. When I tilt
it over, it still requires a ladder to work on it due to the length of
the elements.

What I would like to do is to be able to rotate it as though I were
trying for vertical polarization before or during the tilt over
process. That would bring the antenna to a "flat" attitude for
maintenance and storm protection.

Any thoughts? The usual old fashioned Ham parameters apply: Little
cost as possible, build as much as I can my self, etc......

BTW, I have several good TV rotators I might use, but none with a hole
all the way through!

de W8CCW

I have a Hygain TH3Mk4, which is on a 14 foot boom. What I do is to first
rotate the antenna so that when the tower is tilted down, the antenna is
pointed straight up, with the reflector parallel to the ground. I tilt the
tower until the rotator is resting on the part of an 8 foot step ladder that
the paint can is supposed to go on. This gives access to the reflector and
driven element. At that point I would take the antenna off the boom if I had
to do anything other than work on the feedline, but have had no reason to do
that.

Here is something else you could try: drill a hole through the boom, mast,
and mounting plate, and insert a 1/4 inch bolt through the whole thing. Now,
remove the U bolts that fasten the plate to the mast. You can now swing the
boom parallel to the mast. I don't need to do this for the HyGain, but it
should work with the CushCraft.

Tam/WB2TT

I had not thought about pointing it up/down, I was fixated on rolling
the boom. I will think on that.

Thanks!
John, de W8CCW

On Sat, 2 Jul 2005 10:28:02 -0400, "Tam/WB2TT"
wrote:


"John Ferrell" wrote in message
.. .
I have a Cushcraft A3 beam on a crank up/tilt over tower. When I tilt
it over, it still requires a ladder to work on it due to the length of
the elements.

What I would like to do is to be able to rotate it as though I were
trying for vertical polarization before or during the tilt over
process. That would bring the antenna to a "flat" attitude for
maintenance and storm protection.

Any thoughts? The usual old fashioned Ham parameters apply: Little
cost as possible, build as much as I can my self, etc......

BTW, I have several good TV rotators I might use, but none with a hole
all the way through!

de W8CCW

I have a Hygain TH3Mk4, which is on a 14 foot boom. What I do is to first
rotate the antenna so that when the tower is tilted down, the antenna is
pointed straight up, with the reflector parallel to the ground. I tilt the
tower until the rotator is resting on the part of an 8 foot step ladder that
the paint can is supposed to go on. This gives access to the reflector and
driven element. At that point I would take the antenna off the boom if I had
to do anything other than work on the feedline, but have had no reason to do
that.

Here is something else you could try: drill a hole through the boom, mast,
and mounting plate, and insert a 1/4 inch bolt through the whole thing. Now,
remove the U bolts that fasten the plate to the mast. You can now swing the
boom parallel to the mast. I don't need to do this for the HyGain, but it
should work with the CushCraft.

Tam/WB2TT