I need to replace my 13 year old tv antenna on my 30 foot or so tower.
I hate crawling up the thing. It is against my garage. I am thinking
of digging a hole beside it and constructing some type of hinge. I
dont have alot of metal wright now, but I do have some 3 inch pipe, 2
inch pipe, 3 inche square tubing, etc.

I also wondered if I had a 10 foot piece of square tubign attached to
some point int he concrete I will pour for the new tower if mounting a
hand crank winch with a pulley on top would help get it up. (I have to
be able to do this all by myself.

I thought of using my extra tractor pin 3 point inches and some black
pipe about the size of the pins for hinges.

APpreciate any advice.

On Apr 18, 9:46*am, stryped wrote:
I need to replace my 13 year old tv antenna on my 30 foot or so tower.
I hate crawling up the thing. It is against my garage. I am thinking
of digging a hole beside it and constructing some type of hinge. I
dont have alot of metal wright now, but I do have some 3 inch pipe, 2
inch pipe, 3 inche square tubing, etc.

I also wondered if I had a 10 foot piece of square tubign attached to
some point int he concrete I will pour for the new tower if mounting a
hand crank winch with a pulley on top would help get it up. (I have to
be able to do this all by myself.

I thought of using my extra tractor pin 3 point inches and some black
pipe about the size of the pins for hinges.

APpreciate any advice.

Here is mine, 50 feet up and easy to work on:
https://picasaweb.google.com/KB1DAL/...51829689947138

The horizontal 2x4 is a handrail since my balance is poor. The other
end is attached to the chimney cleaning platform.The vertical wooden
mast is a 2x4 bolted to an upright landscaping post at the bottom.
It's loosely pinned to the joist hangar on the fascia board, so
expansion won't rip it loose.

The triangular support under the rotator rests on a door hinge. It's
attached to a sled that runs on the aluminum U extrusions and is
raised by the barely visible block and tackle, on the sled and under
the flashing. The tapered upper wooden support disconnects with a
banded shiplap joint at the lower guy line so the rotator can lower to
the ground and the antenna to within reach on the roof.

The top is guyed with fishline that runs over pulleys just below the
antenna and down to tieoffs at the base. They are visible as diagonal
white lines under the handrail.

The three lines below the rotator are its control cable, the lightning
ground wire and the rope for operating the chimney cleaning brush.

jsw

"stryped" wrote in message
...
I need to replace my 13 year old tv antenna on my 30 foot or so tower.
I hate crawling up the thing. It is against my garage. I am thinking
of digging a hole beside it and constructing some type of hinge. I
dont have alot of metal wright now, but I do have some 3 inch pipe, 2
inch pipe, 3 inche square tubing, etc.

I also wondered if I had a 10 foot piece of square tubign attached to
some point int he concrete I will pour for the new tower if mounting a
hand crank winch with a pulley on top would help get it up. (I have to
be able to do this all by myself.

I thought of using my extra tractor pin 3 point inches and some black
pipe about the size of the pins for hinges.

APpreciate any advice.

Rent a lift for one day.

On Apr 18, 7:46*am, stryped wrote:
I need to replace my 13 year old tv antenna on my 30 foot or so tower.
I hate crawling up the thing. It is against my garage. I am thinking
of digging a hole beside it and constructing some type of hinge. I
dont have alot of metal wright now, but I do have some 3 inch pipe, 2
inch pipe, 3 inche square tubing, etc.

I also wondered if I had a 10 foot piece of square tubign attached to
some point int he concrete I will pour for the new tower if mounting a
hand crank winch with a pulley on top would help get it up. (I have to
be able to do this all by myself.

I thought of using my extra tractor pin 3 point inches and some black
pipe about the size of the pins for hinges.

APpreciate any advice.

There's any number of ways to do it, mine's up there about 20' which
is sufficient to get all the local channels. I rigged mine up to tip
completely over, also has the satellite dish attached. With
everything gone to digital, you aren't going to need the giant beams
of yesteryear or the heavy superstructure to support same, I've got a
small flying saucer on top that's amplified. I can get by with what
was a roof tripod supporting a couple of lengths of antenna mast
tubing and a couple of sets of guy wires. The whole thing is very
light weight and I can tip it down and set it back up by myself. Has
stood up to 100 mph winds several times and a bunch of 4' deep
blizzards. Has been up about 10 years. Top set of guys is about 4'
from the top, second set is about in the center, all going down to
three ground anchors. Have to periodically check tension on them.

If you want something more elaborate, check out what the hams do with
their towers.

Stan

I've been thinking about this, too. My proposed solution works if you're
not using a rotator. I'm assuming your mast is on the gable-end of your
garage. Directly beneath your attachment point up on the eaves, dig a post
hole for a U-shaped hinge. Can be made of two pcs. of pressure treated wood
or metal. Leave space for your mast pipe plus a little clearance space.
Drill two holes through your mast and the U-shaped bracket that you have set
in concrete. Use through-bolts using bottom one as hinge and top one to
lock it in place when upright. Screw large eye-bolt into eaves to run
temporary rope through tied to your mast. Then walk up your mast while
pulling on the rope. When upright tie off mast with wire or strapping and
remove the rope. Then secure your guy wires which are hanging down from the
top. Just an idea.

--
Ted Walker
"Jack of all trades, master of none",
But having fun working on it!
"stryped" wrote in message
...
I need to replace my 13 year old tv antenna on my 30 foot or so tower.
I hate crawling up the thing. It is against my garage. I am thinking
of digging a hole beside it and constructing some type of hinge. I
dont have alot of metal wright now, but I do have some 3 inch pipe, 2
inch pipe, 3 inche square tubing, etc.

I also wondered if I had a 10 foot piece of square tubign attached to
some point int he concrete I will pour for the new tower if mounting a
hand crank winch with a pulley on top would help get it up. (I have to
be able to do this all by myself.

I thought of using my extra tractor pin 3 point inches and some black
pipe about the size of the pins for hinges.

APpreciate any advice.

On Apr 19, 4:12*pm, "Ted Walker" wrote:
I've been thinking about this, too. *My proposed solution works if you're
not using a rotator. *I'm assuming your mast is on the gable-end of your
garage. *Directly beneath your attachment point up on the eaves, dig a post
hole for a U-shaped hinge. *Can be made of two pcs. of pressure treated wood
or metal. *Leave space for your mast pipe plus a little clearance space..
Drill two holes through your mast and the U-shaped bracket that you have set
in concrete. *Use through-bolts using bottom one as hinge and top one to
lock it in place when upright. *Screw large eye-bolt into eaves to run
temporary rope through tied to your mast. *Then walk up your mast while
pulling on the rope. *When upright tie off mast with wire or strapping and
remove the rope. *Then secure your guy wires which are hanging down from the
top. *Just an idea.

--
Ted Walker

The joint between the landscape post and the 2x4 on my mast support
pivots as you described. When I lowered the wooden mast the angled
force pushed the joint hard against the siding of the house, so I
bolted it solid and put the swing-down hinge on the rotator base
instead.

jsw