Are you surprised?? LOL?? that this reminds me of a story??
In 1968, I entered U.S. Navy Electronics "A" School at Treasure Island, in the middle of San Francisco Bay. SOON after school got rolling, the Navy wasted no time in starting to educate us about electrical safety. Remove rings and watches, work with one hand, etc
MOST important was that when you tag something, IT IS NOT to be messed with except by the person who put it there or by direct authorization of that person, IE the two or three techs working on the problem
So, we had a GREAT amateur radio club on station, Google K6NCG. We had a tower about 120 ft, one that I have been up several times, and was in fact my first real climbing experience, other than trees
So we got a gigantic Hygain log periodic out of salvage, this thing is HUGE. The boom is approx 40 ft long and the boom itself is made of tower sections. The longest element of the thing is about 40 ft, so this thing is about 40 ft square, and weighs hundreds of pounds.
The rotator was (by "ham" standards), HUGE. It was a box ? about 1 1/2 ft square, worm drive. Now, the rotator originally had a rotating hard line joint, so it was designed for 360* rotation, so had no stops in the rotator. EDIT--a corner of the rotator is visible in the bottom photo, so this was the day it went up
It happened, as per schedules, etc, that we didn't get a mod done in there to get stop switches installed. So we put it up anyway, a story all by itself. "Young 67dart273" standing on top of the tower, belted to the antenna mast above the rotator, clamping the triband and 20M monobander to the mast!!!!
ANYway...................so we get as far as we can --with no rotator stops.... and the 120V cord plug had holes through the blades. So I, me, 67dart273, personally put a Great Big Official red safety tag right through those holes.
................You KNOW what's coming, right? So next evening I arrive at the club, and several of the guys look to me like they don't want to LOOK at me, LOL, and sure enough, "we wanted to rotate the beam, and we thought we were careful, but..............."
Yup., That huge rotator "never knew" it had ripped two RG-8 feedlines right in half. Prollly never even worked hard, LOL
This may or may not be the same type beam we pirated the rotator off of, but similar
I believe this was taken several years before I raped the landscape, or vice versa, but this is the club "as I knew it", with the 120ft tower, and, likely the same two antennas when I was there. This was on the NW end of the island, a nice night view of SF, the Golden Gate, and Alcatraz
From atop the tower towards Yerba Buena Island, and the "Bay Bridge," Oakland to the left, SF to the right
A view from atop the tower generally to the Oakland end. It was a "fair walk" about the centerline of the photo, to the horrid old wood WWII barracks we , uh, "lived" in
At bottom, Me, in 68 or 9, getting ready to go up---EDIT just noticed, that is a corner of that very rotator at bottom of photo, so, "this is the day" it went up. Guy above me is probably George Burton, who I take partial credit for turning into a "rodder." He was the first owner of my 70 440-6 RR
