Notes on WARC Tower

28 September 2006

Took off ocean guy. Replaced lower Philly deadend, which was very brown. The end three inches crumbled to rust dust in my hand. Cleaned Philly underneath with file, naval jelly, paint thinner and returned it to good condition. Cleaned the large thimble and sanded and wiped the EHS tail to good condition. Painted thimble and guy wire with black enamel spray. Reassembled guy, then encased as much of the junction as possible in duct seal and tape, then painted black on outside. Wrapped entire EHS tail in Scotch 33, then spray painted black. Installed abrasion guard in tree on the EHS. Retensioned. Applied anti seize to turnbuckle.

Sanded and cleaned all top Philly guy attachments and then painted with black spray enamel, two coats. Taped with Scotch 33. Applied Penetrox where guys wrap around aluminum tower legs.

Took off two of three leg splints. Legs are 60% through, 33%, and about 15%. Splint was crumbled to rust dust, but pipe straps were still quite good. Made two new splints from galvanized pipe. Painted both black enamel -- taped one and then painted again. Installed new splints with five pipe straps each. Cut two of three rotor plate U-bolts off with hacksaw -- these were heavily rusted. Cleaned rotor plate and put in one DX Engineering 1.5 inch U bolt around splint, leg, and into rotor plate. Will do rest tomorrow. Rotor plate needs aluminum backers, 1 x 3.5 inches with holes 1.5 inches on center for strength.

30 September 2006

Splinted the third leg with galvanized pipe, wrapped in tape and sprayed with acrylic. Five pipe straps, and DX Engineering stainless U-bolt through the splint and rotor plate. Added three home brew aluminum backer plates to stiffen the rotor plate, the holes of which have opened from corrosion. Wrapped 30 vee in duct seal at bottom rope attachment point. All aluminum parts heavily coated with Penetrox.

Applied Penetrox to all through-leg bolts all the way down.

IMPORTANT: Check oxidation at point where guys wraps around tower legs -- covered with Penetrox this date.

Inspection 6 April 2007

New Mexico patio guy: Dead end fair on Phillystran. All else nearly perfect.

Wall guy: Dead end extremely bad on Phillystran. Guy wire bad -- need to replace with 1/4 inch EHS. Length 10 ft on level ground below.

13-15 July 2009

K8LEE and W0CG replaced guy tails on NW and NE guys, removing all cobbled together hardware and replacing with four new Philly grips and new 1/4 inch EHS steel guy wire. Used four used but non-corroded 1/4 inch guy grips. All covered with epoxy, Scotch 33, two coats of varnish. Taped all of the connection between the tower and the guy grips. Encased in duct seal on 16 July.

All else at top on good condition, including the leg splints.

16 September 2010

Scraped Stone earth anchor to bare metal and applied epoxy primer, and then finish coat the next day.

9 December 2010

Dug down 4 inches on guy anchors that are in dirt. 100% good, no corrosion. 

19 November 2012

W2GD advised spacing the overhead cable messengers away from direct contact with the aluminum. GD shook tower hard at the top and pronounced it strong and safe.

1 April 2013

Installed tin spacers between the tower legs and two of the three messenger cables. Could not get full contact on the third one. Condition of deadends and tower legs was good at all three points. Trying to replace the rotor bottom bolts. Got two of the four out. Heads on the other two have rusted and 7/16 tool will not bite.

7 April 2013       

Reinstalled two of the rotor bolts with anti-seize and very large stainless fender washers. Was unable to get the other two bolts out.

6 April 2015

Rotor will not turn, even with boost from the blue pliers. Brake works. Repair plan: Make a rotor plate stiffener from aluminum flat plate, 28 cm x 28 cm x 28 cm. (Plate is in suitcase today to go back to Idaho. Brown paper cutting template is with the flat plate in suitcase.) Pre-drill rotor holes (4) and several holes around the edges to splice it to the old plate. In Curacao, grind hardware off rotor and remove. Install stiffiner plate and file out old plate as necessary to accept the quick connect on the replacement rotor. Connect new rotor with quick connect. Send old rotor for repair and installation of a quick connect.

3 October 2015

Arrived to find the ocean guy from the WARC tower lying on the ground. Dead end at tower broke and dropped the guy.

12 December 2015

Completed weeks-spanning total rebuild of guys except for the bottom attachment part. Installed new egg insulator at the Phillystran - EHS gap where both dead ends were 80% of the way to breaking. Two coats of epoxy and full weathercoating. Reattached using the existing turnbuckle with fresh anti-seize and user existing cable arrangement. Weatherproofed this date on tower. W0NB assisted in part.

6 December 2017

Replaced messenger cable from house to WARC tower. Used new 1/4 " EHS and two new deadends, coated all wire with epoxy primer and finish coat with help from Dorothy. All tie wraps taped. Old cable is in Step Closet.

13 February 2019

Installed the last of three leg splints at the level of the rotor plate. Used 24 inch long 3/4 inch diameter rigid aluminum rod and about 7 stainless pipe clamps on each. Also, the stainless U-bolt to the rotor plate captured each of the splints. Each leg was eaten through about 50%, but no additional has happened since I removed the zinc rotor plate U-bolts. This splinting should last indefinitely.