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15 March 2005 Notes

Need to replace safety U bolt above TA-33 – 1.5 inch mast

Removed all tape on cables on top section and sanded prior to painting – relatively good condition everywhere

The Boom to mast bracket (Hy-Gain) on the 20 yagi is broken – only two bolts are holding the antenna, and two more about to let go – needs to be saftied with wire in case this breaks before July. Order replacement from Hy-Gain.

Removed the tape on the top guy wire attachments – sanded and cleaned and will paint and then encapsulate in duct seal and tape

Top tower section in excellent condition – sanded minor rust spots and recoated

Section 7 in poor condition – sanded rust blooms on 15 March down to just below the 20 meter yagi.

Replaced ocean guy top guy, double coated with epoxy the wrapped with Scotch 33 and painted with acrylic. Cleaned ocean guy top Philly deadend, painted, taped, sprayed, needs new Philly guy.

Bottom ocean guy cleaned, painted, needs to be taped, filled insulator top with duct seal.

Replaced top wall guy exactly the same as the technique used for ocean guy. Painted and taped bottom guy and sprayed with acrylic and potted both insulators. Need to untape in 6 months to check rust.

Painted and taped both Stone guy anchors as high as could reach and potted bottom insulator.

Scraped and painted top section and 60-70 section, including mast as high as could be reached. Rust was on surface only, much worse on 60-70 than on 70-78 piece. Removed safety muffler clamp above top mast bearing -- it was almost all disintegrated in rust.

NOTE: Scraping for this paint I found three very serious rust blooms at the 49 foot point, just above the top 10 yagi. Sanding did not work, so the next day I used a rat tail file and very aggressive digging to clear out all the rusty material. Painted these bad spots (and others on this section) with cold galv. Then today epoxy painted 40 - 60 feet. Only loose end is need to remove the 10 stack box and clean and paint the NE tower leg under the bracket. Structural integrity of the tower is not threatened, but we need to monitor these spots very closely.

Scraped 20 - 40 feet. Three serious rust blooms on SE leg, but not as bad as above sections. Next time need to remove goop around guy anchors at 40 feet and inspect. Used cold galv as primer. Also removed 10 meter Stackmatch box and scraped and prepped leg rust at that point. This afternoon painted under the 10 Stackmatch and the 40 - 20 foot section. Some leg blooms, but they were cleaned up well. Used cold galv, which seemed to be helping eat some of the surface rust.

Opened up guy attachment point at 40 feet, ocean guy, for inspection. Guy attachment point and dead end look nearly perfect. The test section that I left bare last year for the last inch of the deadend (lower) was brown but not bad. Retaped all, including the test section. Put on scab and removed bottom ocean guy. Removed bottom Phillystran dead end. There was very heavy rust at the top end of deadend, but the rest of the length was good. Inside of deadend was rust free except for the top three inches. Cleaned paint and rust off the Philly tail and cleaned it with paint thinner and dried. Tail was flexible and had no apparent damage. Put on new dead end. Replaced guy wire tail with new EHS, painted with two coats white two component primer and taped half-wrapped Scotch 33. New EHS deadends at both ends. Replaced thimble on turnbuckle with stainless thimble. At the old thimble, one of the five strands of the old dead end was rusted through with very heavy rust on the galvanized thimble. Cleaned turnbuckle and applied heavy anti seize to turnbuckle threads and exposed points on the equalizer plate. Painted all exposed parts with white two component primer, two coats, then encased all in duct seal and tape the next day. Painted taped guy wire with acrylic. Ground out a small channel in roof for guy wire and put in a sleeve of flex grey conduit. Complete - required almost two full days of work. The EHS tail is 23 ft plus extra tail at ground to lock turnbuckles.

Removed top Stone guy. Phillystran dead end was in pretty good condition. Replaced Philly dead end but DID NOT replace steel tail or the 1/4 EHS dead ends, as there was no rust or corrosion of note. Painted with blue exterior house paint because two component was not readily available. Taped and duct-sealed using the usual procedure. Guy reattached 12 Dec 06.

Inspected entire tower. Rust is minimal except one spot on SE leg at top guy plate, which Jerry sprayed with corrosion block and then taped. Painting will wait until February.

Replaced bottom wall guy, including three new deadends, new EHS wire, all weatherproofed, sealed, and varnished. With N8LGP, N1ZZ, NP2L. Completed coating and sealing at guy anchor 22 Feb with N8LGP.

Inspected entire tower. Top section good, minor spots on zig zags. 60-70 light on zig zags, legs perfect. 50-60 light, nearly perfect. 40-50 Ditto as above, missed painted spots are the only places there is rust. 30-40 ditto, good until July. 20-30 very light. 0-20 perfect.

Stone bottom guy: Good condition -- can be sanded and painted. Steel tail good. 21 ft EHS on level ground below.

Sanded all thin spots showing rust and coated with ivory epoxy. Also completely coated Section 4 heavily with ivory as first step in scheduled painting. I'll do section 3 in September, 5 and 6 in October, 7 8 in November. Tower condition is good with minor rust on some zig zags, no significant rust noted on legs.

Painted Section 4 using ivory epoxy. Section was in good condition and only minor sanding was needed.

Painted Section 3, Section 6, and half of Section 5 before running out of ivory epoxy. Sections were in good condition and required minimal sanding. Did not remove tape to paint behind cables on back leg.

Scraped and painted from top of mast, Sections 8 and 7, 40-45 feet, and 20-17 feet. All was in nominally good condition except legs where US/JA 20 had been attached, which required scraping deeply and needs inspection again soon. Ivory paint used. Legs on Section 7 were bad, especially at old 20 meter attachment point. All else was routine controllable rust. On 14th did 68-60, 45-40, spotted 45-60. Only 17 - 0 remains. No extremely bad spots except for the 20 old attach point.

Full inspection. 0 - 15 good. 15 - 30 moderate rust, overdue. 30 - 60 Light rust spots only (ivory). 60 - 70 like new. 70 - 78 Needs spotted - light to moderate rust.

Used power sander on 40-30 and 30-20. There was one very bad leg spot an inch above the guy anchor on the Stone leg. No other severe bad spots were found on the legs. I un-taped the cable bundle and inspected carefully. Several zigzags needed to be cleaned to bare metal. Also, the safety nut on the guy bolt on the wall guy is rusted through in places. Following day (1 March) put primer on all spots from 40 feet down to about 15 ft and then full coat of primer down to 9 feet.

Coated from 41 foot point to base with grey epoxy. Removed all tape from cable bundle. This was a heavy, totally thorough coat.

Power sanded and scraped from top down to 59 feet. Moderate rust on top section and removed all possible to bare metal and taped. Untaped cables to do rear of back leg. Section 7 was in good condition except for the top two feet and the bottom one foot. Top half of mast above top plate is in seriously bad condition -- needs to be deep sanded. All 12 rotor plate and bearing plate U-bolts need to be replaced. All are rusting badly and will take the tower legs with them.

Power sanded from 59 feet to middle at 40. Worst spot was on Stone leg at point where top 10 yagi is bolted on. Took the yagi off and raised it up (permanently) about a foot so I could work on the bad spot. Got almost all of the rust off, but the leg has lost about 1/3 of its material in the upwind side. The bad rust is only on the upwind side. Sections 6 and 5 only had light-moderate rust. Deep sanded everything I saw. Then primed from top plate down to middle in a long session. Ready for grey finish coat.

Coated Section 6 and 5 with heavy finish coat of grey. Should hold for a long time, possibly a good year. On the 21st coated top and Section 7, reaching up the mast to about two feet below the six yagi. There is a serious huge rust bloom on the mast within reach that I scraped down, sanded minimally, and coated with grey, no primer.

Inspection. 0-10 good. 10-20 pinhole rust on zig zags. 20-30 bad zz near top. 30-40 perfect. 40-50 small zz rust at top. 50-60 good. 60-70 perfect. 70-78 Bad zz at bottom and bad zz at center. Mast is bad above where I can reach at 6 meter yagi and there's a bloom halfway up the mast.

Inspection: Bottom - 50. Good except for one zig zag at 28 feet. 50-70. Nearly perfect. 70-top: A few blooms. Mast: bad.

WB9Z scraped entire mast, removing up to 1/16 inches of material in places. Coated triple coats of epoxy. Also scraped and touched-up the 70-78 foot section.

W0CG spotted all rust spots from top down with primer. Tower is in good shape with only minor rust blooms. Worst spot was one zig zag at 28 feet.

Mid-day on 13 September the top ocean guy broke and fell off when the Phillystran dead end opened up at the egg insulator. Severe rust. Replaced Phillystran guy grip with new, and 1/4 EHS guy grip with a clean used one. Re-sealed egg insulator totally, including epoxy primer and finish paint, tape, and polyurethane varnish. At ground, top EHS-turnbuckle coupling has minor rust, as does the eye of the turnbuckle. Cleaned most and recoated. 1/4 inch guy grip was 100% good. Top turnbuckle threads were cleaned and re-lubed with anti-seize. Body rust was minor -- cleaned as well as possible and epoxied with finish blue (no primer). 1/4 EHS grip on bottom guy is 100% good. Opened bottom ocean guy egg for inspection and all is 100% shiny like new. Bottom guy turnbuckle has some body rust and the threads were brown but they wire-brushed OK. Turnbuckle bottom end has rust on turnbuckle eye and on bottom corner od equalizer plate. Inspect the bottom, bottom turnbuckle eye in six months. Click here for photos of the broken guy: | Photo 1 | Photo 2 | Photo 3 | Photo 4 |

Re-sealed all on 15 September and wrapped turnbuckle threads and body in duct seal, sis bricks required, and taped all possible. Will varnish when able, and need to epoxy the guy tails that are wrapped into turnbuckles for safety. Wrapped EP in black plastic -- check in a few months that this is not pooling water.

Working on hole searching. Based on prior maintenance notes, opened up the Stone leg about a foot below the top 10 meter beam. There is still very significant rust here. Scraped with the file and sanded, and still need to power sand. Need to remove 10 meter beam to clean up the leg under the attachment point. (Did this on 1 Nov -- see below.)

On Stone leg above the 20 meter truss attachment, going up one zig-zag space, several blooms, not very deep, were found and cleaned. Also one under the 6 meter coax tape bundle. Will clean and re-coat.

At 20 meter yagi point, minor dimple on Stone leg about 6 inches below the boom. Deep-cleaned with utility knife.

Below top plate on ocean leg moderate rust from plate down to guy. Other two legs checked at this height and are perfect.

Long ago I left about an inch of the bottom of the Philly grip on the tower uncovered with tape. Painted, but un-taped, as an experiment. Now that inch is rusted almost to failure, and it goes about an inch up under the tape. Good from there up. Cleaned and taped this. Conclusion: paint alone will not stop rust, but the tape plus paint definitely does.

Power-sanded all of the taped areas from 16 Sept. Applied epoxy primer to all areas referenced in 16 Sept note, above. In addition, scraped ocean leg at bottom coupler of top section and found very significant surface rust. Cleaned, power-sanded, and primed.

Put blue finish coat on all areas that 1) were primed in connection with the 16 Sept prep and, 2) were primed on 26 March. All else was left as is to give rust blooms a chance to appear. Also put coat of varnish on Ocean guy ground connection, including turnbuckle bundles.

N8NR and W0CG moved top 10 yagi up about 10 inches, and scraped and sanded the leg underneath the mast plate. Some deep blisters, but cleaned up well except for the bottom of the deepest pits. Primed.

Used Frigger ladder in truck bed and reached top wall guy. Opened for inspection and all is in good condition. Should be replaced, but not high urgency. Re-taped but did not add any duct seal. Used same ladder to open bottom Stone guy -- is in good condition with almost no corrosion. Added considerable duct seal and made a full taped joint. No need to inspect again for several years. (Replaced this joint and all parts December 2012.)

W8WTS power sanded top of mast beneath 6 meter beam. About 1/3 of the wall thickness came off. Mast integrity is still very good. Coated entire mast with primer over the Signal Blue.

Started at top and worked down doing rust bloom repairs. Couple of moderately bad zig zags in top section and one bad spot on upwind leg, but minimal material loss. Miscellaneous spots cleaned and prepped in top 40% of tower. Did 100% inspection top to ground. All else looks 100% good. No other rust blooms on entire tower. 1.5 hours on tower.

Primed all prepped spots and re-primed at top 10 meter beam. Only very tiny rust was starting to show through from November 2010. 0.50 hours top to bottom.

Finish-coated all primed spots including entire mast. Good now until fall season.

Three zig zags above SA yagi, on the back (wall) leg, big leg blister. Cleaned with Makita wire brush. No hole, removed significant material. On the 60-70 foot section (the one where the second guys attach) found significant back leg blooms at three places (no holes) and totally cleaned many zig zags. Will continue tomorrow. 2.0 hours on tower. Totally consumed a wire brush for the Makita.

Philly guy anchor at top, ocean anchor badly rusted and near failure. Philly on wall guy has rust and needs replacement but very long time to failure. Philly on Stone guy nearly perfect. Opened the top guy attachment points. All three look essentially perfect except for one rusty safety washer on ocean anchor. Guy bracket tails are perfect! Discovered rotor is free-wheeling. Resealed all three guy attachment points with duct seal and taped. Need to replace ocean dead end urgently, wall guy with moderate urgency, and Stone guy with minimal urgency.

Removed Rotor 4 and installed Rotor 7 on US/JA tower. Works fine. Rotor 4 had no brake. Finished inspecting the three top guy attachments and deadends and then repotted all with duct seal and tape. Very careful sealing was done. At middle guy set opened all three attachment points and deadends. All are essentially perfect except for the wall guy dead end, which is beginning to rust and needs to be replaced with moderate urgency. On ground, opened the Stone guy points and cleaned. All looks good. Cut branches clear of the guys from the planter and tree. Potted both bottom guy dead end connections in duct seal and tape. Both dead ends are perfect under their tape.

Cleaned and lubricated Stone ground guy parts. Opened, inspected, photographed, and cleaned, resealed and lubed both guy connections at Wall guy. All is in perfect condition. Photos are in regular photo folder for March 2012. All black plastic wraps will be left off because they have been trapping water against the metal parts and accelerating rusting process.

Applied finish blue epoxy to all primed spots on Europe tower, to exposed parts on all ground guy anchors, to WARC tower messenger cable, and to the top three rusting deadends on US/JA tower. 2.0 hours in the air.

Next steps: Replace top ocean and wall Philly grips, middle Stone grip. Do total top to bottom rust and prime inspection and cleanup.

Ordered various Rohn components from Texas Towers. Click here for invoice. Shipped to Idaho and then taken to Curacao mostly on March 20 and the rest later or by others.

Rigged scab guy and removed top ocean guy. Guy connector and hardware, washers, thimble at top were in perfect condition and threads came out clean and dry. Total 1.5 hours on tower. Over the next two days replaced and resealed the guy anchor.

Installed scab guy and removed wall guy. Over next days replaced the deadend. Installed a new pre-primed and epoxied thimble.

Started at top with Makita and epoxy primer, moving down tower fixing rust blooms. After 2.5 hours on tower got down to 20 meter yagi. Worst was mast just below the two thrust bearings. In future need to slide mast down, cut off bottom inches, and possible splint. Bottom rotor plate is losing material and should be replaced over time. Worst spots were on the same face as the antenna booms because it is hardest to access to maintain.

Completed rust spot repair from 20 meter yagi to ground. All spots primed with epoxy. Two zig zags have lost almost 50% material. Ocean leg at top 10 yagi had considerable rust. No hole or serious thinning. Next step on this tower: slide mast down 6 inches, cut off bottom, clean up mast where it goes through the thrust bearings. Then move 20 and 15 antennas and repair underneath on legs.

Opened connection between guy tail and Phillystran at ground on ocean guy. Excessive rust on Philly deadend and the first (top) three inches of the deadend crumbled in my hand. K2PLF saw this. Replaced both the Philly grip and the EHS grip with new. Cleaned insulator. Reassembled and epoxy primed.

Painted all primed spots with blue, top to bottom. Some rust spots were missed and should be cleaned, especially from 20 yagi to top. 1.5 hours on tower.

Potted EHS guy connector (photo) and reattached guy to tower, put it into tension overnight for observation. Painted the potted assembly with spar varnish (not polyurethane). Will pot and tape the tower top connection tomorrow. 0.50 hours on tower.

Potted and final-tensioned guy. Should be lifetime good now. 1.25 hours on tower.

Cleaned and coated back leg about a foot and a half below 15 yagi. There were very large vertical rust blooming striations. Removed about 1/16 inch of material. Reprimed and structurally it is fine.

Two trips up the tower -- put scab guy on top Stone guy and tensioned for removal tomorrow. 0.5 hours on tower. Condition of tower is good except for primed back leg at 15 yagi that needs a coat of blue.

31 March 2013

Disconnected top Stone guy and lowered to ground. Hardware except for the Philly deadend was perfect. Rust on the Philly deadend turned out to be minimal. This would have held for much longer.

After installing new dead end at top and encasing it all in putty and tape, reconnected Stone top guy at tower and then on ground and tensioned. Insulator joint near ground was perfect and was not opened for inspection. 0.5 hours on tower. Now all three top guy sets should be permanently good.

Put blue on back leg just below 15 yagi. This was primed earlier and then missed with blue. The bottom Wall guy Philly connector at tower is showing a lot of surface rust.

Full inspection. Condition of tower very good except for SE leg above top 10 yagi. This is wrapped in tape and needs attention. Mast needs paint where Force 12 was installed. 50-60 foot section showing through in places. Nothing requires urgent work.

Went up with power brush and load of epoxy primer. Mast just above top plate bearing badly splintered. I could have probably knocked a hole in it if had been more aggressive with the file pounding. Cleaned as well as possible and coated with epoxy. Same just below top bearing, and just above bottom bearing. Ocean leg at level of top of rotor had bad vertical splintering on upwind face for about six vertical inches. Cleaned very well (no hole in leg) and coated with epoxy. Several other miscellaneous rust spots popping through that I treated Left off just above 20 boom bracket plate. 1.5 hours on tower.

Continued power brushing and priming. Found small hole in wall leg at height of rotor. Two other very bad vertically striated spots in legs lower. Cleaned all three and coated. Not bad enough to need splints yet. Many minor areas of rust on legs and zig zags treated. 1.75 hours on tower. Stopped three zig zags below top 10 yagi.

Finished power brushing and priming to bottom. Condition fro top 10 down is good. Rust is slow or stopped. 1.25 hours on tower.

Painted white AP Thane finish coat from top down to bottom 10 yagi. Spilled about 1/3 of the paint on the sidewalk tiles. 1.5 hours on tower.

6 meter yagi to mast top: 16 in (unused)
Top bearing to 6 yagi: 55 in
Top of lower bearing to bottom of top plate bearing: 29 in
Bot of mast to bottom of lower bearing: 38 in.

Antennas would not turn. Took the rotor loose and I was able to turn them by grabbing the Force 12 boom. Rotated through 360 degrees several times. Re-bolted the rotor and it turns sluggishly and sticks at about 020 degrees. Rotor is weak. Next thing to try will be to put in a new rotor motor.

Installed a Tailtwister (Rotor 1) but there is still not enough torque. Cut off about 3/4 inch of the bottom of the mast so the T2X would fit.

Used Makita to clean up legs on base plate and remove bad paint. Serious corrosion because of pooling water, but this will stop it. Primed with epoxy. Need to drill two weep holes.

Did complete epoxy primer wire brushing and epoxy priming from top to base, including the base plate itself. Overwhelming majority of time was spent on the top 8 feet. Mast condition at bearings is poor. All else is serviceable. Nothing life-threatening. 2.5 hours on tower.

Coated with white finish epoxy on bottom plate and from above top plate down to one zig zag above bottom 10 yagi. Also overcoated some prior done white and blue areas. Beware bloom on back leg just below 20 meter boom. 2.75 hours on tower.

Finished with white epoxy down to base. Had extra paint so overcoated many of the blue and white places. 0.75 hours on tower.

Power cleaned everything on top section and primed heavily. In a few places I primed over top of small areas of brown showing through that were flat, not blistered. There was a lot of surface rust showing through from the 27 March 2015 painting. Small hole in mast just above bottom thrust bearing. No serious threats to tower legs except possibly at zig zags where rotor plates attach and I can't see underneath. 1.5 hours on tower

Painted entire top section with white epoxy, heavy coat. Even the parts that had zero rust on this section were starting to look oxidized, so it was time for a total coat. 2.0 hours on tower

Power cleaned and primed from bottom of top section all the way to the ground. No really serious non-routine problems found anywhere except for the masts and thrust bearings. 2.0 hours on tower

Painted finish epoxy (bright white) on everything from bottom of top section down to 70 ft. Took pains to remove all tape and cables and coat underneath. Two possibly bad rust blooms were discovered on legs, one on the back of the NW leg just below the 20 boom and one on the NE leg just above the middle guy anchor. These need attention. What remains now is to hit the primed spots from 60 ft to bottom tomorrow. Also coated the bad spot at bottom of Europe tower that was primed yesterday. 2.25 hours on tower

Painted solid white down to one zig zag above the 15 yagi, then white on all primed spots to the bottom. The leg bloom at the guy set is not too bad, but still needs attention. Next to do: clean the known leg blooms, then continue white to the bottom. 2.0 hours on tower

2. Attach 6 meter beam to gin pole up about 24 inches above top plate,

3. Attach Force 12 beam to gin pole up about 12 inches.

4. Attach gin pole rope to mast as high as I can reach.

5. Use Makita grinder to cut mast off just above the top bearing and lower it to the ground.

7. Cut mast just below top bearing, remove it by going up, and lower to ground.

8. Cut mast just above bottom bearing and lower it to the ground.

9. Grind bolts off of bottom thrust bearing (this is already done).

10. Cut mast just below thrust bearing, remove it by going up, and lower to ground.

11. Cut out lower bearing rotor plate and lower to ground.

12. Loosen mast from rotor clamp and lower the mast to the ground.

1. Power wire brush all surfaces where old hardware was removed, prime, and paint two coats, and allow 24 hours of curing time.

2. Install two new rotor plates, fully primed and painted first. Avoid areas where tower legs have thinned down. Putty the U-bolts, temporarily. Even a couple hours of salt exposure will be too much if these are galvanized U-bolts. No problem with stainless.

3. Install the two new N0YY thrust bearings, leaving the plate hardware loose temporarily.

4. Using the gin pole, drop in the bottom mast section (about 52 in) through the top plate.

5. Install ground-tested and fully cleaned up rotor, then clamp bottom section of the mast to the correct height using the thrust bearing, then final tighten that bottom bearing to its plate.

7. The splice will be above the bottom bearing and below the top bearing. Attach splice fixture (more on that design later) to top of bottom mast section using through bolts, liberal anti seize.

8. Using gin pole, drop top mast section (about 72 in) in from tower top and connect the bottom of it to the splice fixture that is installed at the top of the bottom mast section.

10. Reinstall 6 meter beam and check rotor pointing.

13. Prime, paint multiple epoxy coats, and putty all exposed surfaces and vulnerable hardware.

Did entire tower top to bottom with power Makita brush and epoxy primer. Very bad leg hole on back (downwind) side of northwest leg just below the 20 meter boom. It is about 3/4 high and 3/8 wide, and the leg material is obviously very thin on both sides. I cleaned it well and primed. Will coat tomorrow and seal with tape so that the edges of the hole don't start rusting again so fast. Needs splint soon. All other maintenance to the bottom was routine. 1.75 hours on tower.

After eight solid days of work completed installation of new mast, two bearings, and the lower bearing rotor plate. Still needs coax dressed at top and some final coating. Rotor (now a T2X) has broken quick disconnect. Works correctly only when I hold the connector and push up. Needs new quick disconnect cable.

Made up new rotor pigtail with new quick-connect. On 3 December spliced this in on the tower by soldering wires and wrapping with tape and sealing with duct seal. Rotor works perfectly.

Installed half-shell Rohn 45 splint on back leg just below 20 yagi. Steel parts had good epoxy coats. All hardware is stainless and there is a good coat on the leg underneath. At 25 foot point on back leg cleaned that bad bloom and found a large hole on back of leg. (See photo.) Put on epoxy primer coat. Tomorrow will put on finish and then a Rohn 55 half shell splint -- better than nothing. Can't find any 45 G half shell splint pieces under beds in EBR.

After finish coat (white) at 35 foot back leg hole, installed 55G splint piece with N4RV hardware. This will be a permanent installation.

Coated with white finish epoxy from one zz above 15 meter beam to three zz below the top 10. Removed cables from back leg and coated thoroughly. No notably bad spots observed. 1.75 hours on tower.

Inspected and photographed top parts. Some surface corrosion on stainless. Aluminum is dead perfect. Noted that Force 12 boom U-bolt is rusting - his could break the boom over time. Needs to be replaced with DX Engineering saddles. Photos below.

Power brushed and primed entire 8 foot top section. On the Stone leg there's a hole just below the top plate that was under tape for the Force 12 coax. About 4 inches tall and one third of the tube circumference. Needs a splint. On that same leg near the bottom there is an area that is nearly a hole. I coated this and it does not need a splint. On wall leg at the bottom zig zag is a small hole that I cleaned and coated. Several surface rust areas on the zig zags were lightly cleaned but mostly over-coated. Next step is to paint finish epoxy and then install the splint. 2.0 hours on tower.

Power cleaned and put on epoxy primer from 70 ft down to middle guy bracket. Very bad spot found on Stone leg just below 20 meter boom, under where the 40 inverted vee was tied. Went back to ground to get additional tools and black rope. Took this inv vee tieoff area all apart and cleaned (very time consuming) up and re-tied the vee insulator with new black twine. Taped everything. Cleaned very bad rust blossoms under where this was and ended up with a hole in the leg about 1 inch tall and 1/4 wide. Could have made the hole much larger with a utility knife. Primed the area and will need a splint here. 2.75 hours on tower.

Applied white finish epoxy to all areas on 8 ft top section. Coated not just the areas that were primed on the 3rd, but others that were starting to show age. It was not a 100% coat, but quite aggressive including the rotor plates and attachments. The area below the 20 beam where the splint will go was double-coated. 1.75 hours on tower.

Put on white finish coat from last stopping point down to one zig-zag above the bottom of the section at 60 feet. Brief light rain shower near the end of the time. Did almost 100% coat and not just the primed spots. 1.75 hours on tower.

Finish coat from above stopping point down to one zig zag below the top 10 meter yagi. Coated everything with white. 1.5 hours on tower.

White finish coat from above stopping point down to the half zig zag above the mid guy point. 2.0 hours on tower.

Did power scraping and epoxy priming of bad spots from middle guy anchor down to the surface. No dangerous bad spots. 1.5 hours on tower.

White finish coat from middle guy anchor down to 30 foot point. 100 % fresh coat over grey and primed spots from the 26th. 1.75 hours on tower.

White finish coat from 30 ft point down to 19 ft. 100 % fresh coat over grey and primed spots from the 26th. 1.75 hours on tower.

White finish coat from 19 ft down to 4 ft. 100% fresh coat. Removed Shovic boxes. 2.25 hours on tower including 27 to 25 foot painting on Europe tower. This completes a complete top to bottom cleaning and coating including installing two splints on Stone legs. Next should be vigilance for blossoms for a couple of years and fixing only those spots.

Finished white from 4 ft to bottom. Put on leftover primer, then finish coat of grey.

Started at top with power brush and epoxy and worked to the bottom. Top plate is rusting at the north edge. Cleaned and primed. Top plate east tab was severely rusted and delaminating. Cleaned as well as possible and primed. North leg just below the US 80 vee had a bad rust bloom about 4 inches tall. Cleaned down to bare metal and broke through to a tiny hole. Primed, and need to watch closely to see if this needs a splint in future. Rotator plate north side came off like dust and needs to be replaced. Legs in vicinity of rotor plate all in poor condition. Lots of rusty spots until below the 20 meter beam, fewer down to the mid guy set, and almost perfect from there to the ground. Needs new rotor plate at rotator and a splint at 80 vee, north leg. 2.25 hours on tower.

Painted white finish epoxy from top plate down to one zig zag below 20 yagi. Used large amount of paint. 1.5 hours on tower.

Removed rotor, which was freewheeling with brake stuck "off." Six meter coax broken, Force 12 coax OK. Rotor shelf in poor condition and part eaten out. Minor rust blooms from 25 feet up, with top section needing by far the most attention. Overall condition good.

Started at 50 ft and worked to bottom with power brush and epoxy primer. All damage was manageable, however there is a tiny hole in a leg that needs to be watched. 2.0 hours on tower.

From 50 ft to bottom, applied white epoxy finish coat to all primed areas and others showing deterioration in the prior white coat. 2.25 hours on tower.

Power brush and primer from top plate to 50 ft level. Areas needing attention next time:

By far the worst areas are on the top 8 ft section. Two ears of top plate are delaminating, and there is material rusting off the top of the top. I cleaned everything as well as possible and coated. 3.5 hours on tower.

Painted white finish from top plate down to middle of rotor body. Lots of paint and 1.5 hours on tower.

Painted white epoxy finish coat from rotor body down to 50 ft level. All corrosion control work complete for this trip. 1.5 hours on tower.

Full inspection. Below 20 feet good. From 20 feet to top moderate areas of rust showing through in many locations. Top plate even needs additional work. The five steps outlined above need to be accomplished. Get Jason.

Removed middle ocean guy. Deadend at tower was near failure under coat of epoxy and a tape wrap but no putty. Joint at the tower was encased in putty and tape and was near perfect.

Power brush and epoxy prime top down to 40 meter Inv Vee. Rust had bloomed back through the areas primed in July because there was no two component finish paint available on the island. 2.5 hours on tower.

White finish coat on top section to cover primed areas from yesterday and most all old white that looked slightly chalked. Next: scrape and prime as far down as one load of primer will go, then next white finish starting at bottom of top section. 2.25 hours on tower.

Power brush and epoxy prime from 40 meter Inv Vee down to just below boom of bottom 10 US yagi. 2.5 hours on tower

Apply finish coat white epoxy on all primed spots from bottom of top section to middle guy point. Bad spots: Stone leg behind 15 meter boom needs to be cleaned and primed. This will be fairly easy because main boom support is on the wall leg. New hole, very small in Stone leg just above bottom 10 meter boom. Reconnected bottom ocean guy on tower and tensioned. 2.5 hours on tower

Power brush and prime from middle guy point to ground. 30 minutes on tower. Re-sealed guy point on ground and removed temp guy. New deadend replacement is complete.

Apply white finish coat from middle guy bracket to ground. Re-coat new Wall Guy deadend in place on tower. Remove temp guy. 1.5 hours on tower.

Working on bottom Stone guy. Opened deadend on tower and all looks OK except for a bit of rust at the bottom end. Easy to wire brush and recoat. Phillystran deadend at bottom has bad rust blooms, so put on scab guy to replace this deadend.

Stone guy deadend replaced and guy re-installed to tension. Scab guy removed. I left the deadend exposed, two coats white epoxy. The areas under the tape were worse than those left exposed, without paint, in 2001. Complete.

Painted scar on tower from temp guy deadends. Sanded and then painted bottom end of middle tower deadend on Stone guy. Took off tape and sanded, scraped, and painted middle tower deadend Wall guy. Watch this for rust emerging and be ready to replace. Put white epoxy on safety guy at Stone Europe anchor. Used leftover paint on Europe tower. 2.25 hours on towers.

Full inspection. Prepped top for sanding and priming next trip. Opened and inspected all six meatballs -- all good -- resealed. Opened covering on all six tower deadends. All are good except for middle Wall guy grip, which is developing rust and should be replaced. 15 meter beam needs to be swung out from tower on Stone leg where there's a pipe strap. Need to clean and paint le underneath. All else on the tower is routine rust control, not too bad after a full calendar year. 1.0 hours on tower.

Power cleaned and primed entire top section. The Stone top plate ear was badly rusted and delaminated, and it failed during cleaning and dropped the east truss on the 80 2 el wire beam. It landed safely on cables and I connected it for safety until I can make an adapter. Three small holes in legs. A few zig zags necked down about 50%. I very aggressively cleaned everywhere I possibly could and put on epoxy primer. 2.25 hours on tower.

Power cleaned and primed from 70 foot point down to 55 ft. Very aggressive removal of cables and other obstacles. Installed home brew bracket to replace failed top plate hole for 80 meter vee beam truss. Bad hole at 20 meter boom on back side of Stone leg in middle of splice piece. Seems like five more years may be the limit on this tower top two sections. 2.25 hours on tower.

Applied finish coat of white from top to 40 meter vee feedpoint. Very careful and thorough paint application. Used clothesline tag line method to get 80 truss tighter. Could still use more tension. 3.25 hours on tower.

Applied white finish epoxy from 40 vee feedpoint down to 15 meter US/JA yagi. 1.25 hours on tower.

Applied white epoxy finish coat from 15 US/JA down to transformer for 10 stack 2.0 hours on tower

Power cleaned rust and primed from 10 stack transformer to bottom. No significant problems noted. 2.25 hours on tower.

Primed guy anchor at middle of tower after removing northwest guy for replacement of deadend 0.5 hours on tower

Finish epoxy white coat from 10 stack transformer to ground. 3.25 hours on tower in two separate trips to mix additional paint.

Overall Summary of Tower Condition: Places in the top 20 feet are within probably five years of failure. Top plate hole for 80 truss has already failed. Watch everywhere closely. Next step is to put full coat of white top to bottom to slow rust down. Consider sizing stainless rod and clamps to splint some of the weakening diagonal braces.

Reconnected mid northwest guy wire with new deadend and tensioned. Will reinstall complete meatball because condition of the old one was nearly perfect.

Removed temp guy and stowed. Installed meatball at tower. Secured coax bundles on tower after cutting loose to paint. Installed pipe strap on back of 15 Yagi boom. New deadend install complete.

Used a pipe strap to pull the 80 vee beam boom up tight, then secured the permanent saddle clamps.