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Replacement of HF mast
Report of the work to replace the club's old HF mast.
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Written by:
G0NZO (
Jules Smith )
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Saturday, 5 September 2009 |
 The mast supporting the club's multiband HF beam was feeling it's age and showing signs of corrosion.
Due to the weight of the mast, lowering it was no trivial matter. The lowering rope had to run over the roof of an adjacent building. The club's contest trailer-mast was used to provide an elevated pulley to give a little extra leverage and to avoid damage to the roof.
All the fixings for the beam were corroded, so the mast and beam had to come down in one go.
A double rope was used, just in case, using a land-rover as the anchor to lower the mast. With such a heavy mover as the land-rover, there was no need for block and tackle.
The mast was carefully lowered until the beam was almost on the ground, then the mast was propped using scaffold. Then we were able to attack the seized antenna clamps with grinders and hacksaws.
With the beam removed, the mast could be lowered to the ground. After a close inspection it decided that the mast was not going to be reused, so it was cut into moveable sections.
The plan is to replace the mast with a conventional tilt over mast, allowing easier maintenance in the future, Watch this space.
Thanks to all the FRARS team who put in so much effort to get the mast down in a controlled and safe manner.
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