Monday, August 16, 2004
The purpose of this project (like I need yet another project!) was an idea that
I had to make it easier to get antennas mounted on the mast. I've seen tons of
pictures out there and watched a friend tram several antennas up and down.
I know, I know..your thinking 'boy, thats a lot of junk to tram up an
antenna!'. You know what?
Your right! My idea though was to come up with something that
could tram up a large antenna
and have a small person be able to handle it comfortably at the top
even with a moderate wind blowing.
My thoughts on this were to keep the center of gravity below the tram
line to minimize side to side rocking.
The T plate at the front where it will be u-bolted to kills all rotation
in the horizontal plane.
The entire 'square' frame isn't actually bolted tight either!
It is loose so that when you reach the pull line
point at top and your ground crew is has the pull line tied off you
don't actually have to 'man-handle' the
antenna, you simply grab the boom (attached to the flat botoom plate
below) and pull it towards the mast.
The frame starts to turn into a diamond shape with the top half moving
as it will and the bottom half easily
under your control.
With a strong bungie cord or a small tie strap or bit of rope you can
secure the boom (or trolly more likely)
to the mast and then begin putting your U-bolts in your plate on the
mast! Since the boom is already
u-bolted to the flat plate on the trolley you can have your mast u-bolts
already around the boom held tight
by that connection and ready to slide into place when you reach the
top.
Anyway, to some pictures!
Above is a good shot of the 'diamond angle'. You can see
how I mean to pull the beam (bottom right) into
the mast and tie it off while I bolt the antenna in place.
First 'flight' test. Already I see problems to work out.
I have the pull rope on top and I need to move it
down below the pulley. Here is is pulling the top too much (not
to mention the weight that will be on the front)
and when pulled is lifting the back pulley off of the tram rope
which pushes the antenna into a flat (parallel) position.
Of course the point is to get a good take off angle with the elements
pointed up pretty high so that they clear
the top of the tower. (or guy lines in some cases)
Good shot from a different angle.
In the shot above I had removed the back wheel on the tram and put
it below the rope
to keep the thing from bouncing around. From this angle I can
see how much better
it will be if I attach the pull line low.
Well as you can see I still have to work it out quite a bit! The
flat plate where the boom
clamps to is pretty heavy steel, I probably should have used aluminum
but I was budget shopping!
More updates later!
M@