This is how I managed to raise my 72 foot tall vertical antenna by myself. The entire antenna and guy lines weighs about 110 pounds. It sits on a hinged support which is mounted on a base insulator. The antenna is guyed in 4 directions in a square pattern. The antenna was laid out flat on the ground pointing at the West guy anchor. The guy lines for the North and South sides were stretched out from the antenna and fastened to their respective anchor points. The guy lines to the West anchor point were attached to the anchor point, but the lines were laying loose on the ground. As the antenna was raised, these lines were pulled tight and held the antenna upright. The guy lines that would eventually be attached to the East anchor point were attached to the top end of a 32 foot extension ladder which was set upright and at right angles to the antenna when it is laying on the ground. The ladder was be raised into position by using a 16 foot 2 x 4. A small tractor was used to do the pulling for this project. Everything was calculated out beforehand, and I knew the magnitude and direction of the forces involved during the lift. I had myself positioned during the lift so that I could see the antenna and was well away from where it might fall should it happen to fall while it was being erected. The entire operation went uneventfully, and took only about three minutes longer than the length of this video.
21 сен 2010
