This was originally intended to be a single event to replace a balun on a 3 element beam up on a 50 ft tower 2022.09.?? balun swap - climbed tower, cutting some wire ties and electrical tape on the way up - dropped down several no longer used bits including a longwire bracket and pulley - swapped the balun but SWR (tested at the base of the antenna) did not improve. decided antenna needs work - disconnected and lowered antenna, to be refurbished and reinstalled at a later date 2022.09.?? beam reinstall: - lifted antenna via tram line - while positioning antenna, one element separated from bean and fell down to the ground before anyone noticed what had happened - element was undamaged. cleaned up and lifted back up to reinstall - hose clamp on element was at inner end of fluting cut on parent element, it cannot be tightened enough to securely grip the smaller element, moved it down - tested several other elements. MOST elements are extremely loose, with same problem. Cannot access outer clamps while on tower. it's going to have to come down and be redone. - lowered antenna back down for adjustment, will have to reinstall at a later date - added "verify all antenna fittings are secure prior to raising" to my mental checklist for future events 2022.10.02 beam reinstall: tower: 45 foot moderate concrete base two sets of 3 guy wires, top set at 45 degrees guys secured to three 3ft tall cemented posts tower stability: very good top: rotor on rotor plate tower mast pipe, approximately 8ft long, fed through top section guide two piece fiberglass dual band vertical with three 18" ground radials, bracketed to top of tower mast existing tower clutter: end-fed longwire balun box attached to arm (to be removed) at top of tower dipole attached around 30ft up rotor control cable and three coaxial cables - antenna was inspected to insure all clamps and bolts were firmly secured and that no elements were loose - this beam has a clear top and bottom as well as front and back - mounting bracket can only clamp to tower mast on one side of antenna boom, and I won't be able to flip it around to the other side if it winds up on the wrong side of the mast pole, but I should be able to loosen the bracket and spin it around if needed - verified mounting bracket was at center of mass - two ropes were selected to create tram line, from a tree 10ft behind and 20 degrees off from one of the guy wire posts - ground crew were briefed on how to secure and tighten tram line rope to tree once other end was secured on tower - antenna will ride on tram via closely strapped carabiners on each end, the lead being pulled by the second rope - no special attention was paid as t which end (front/back) was in the lead up the tram - tower climb started by cutting tape on all cables as I went up, the top of the cables was seen to be double secured by wire ties - once up, the dipole arm was secured, detached, and lowered to the ground - new (beam) coax was raised, old coax was lowered - pulled up both heavy ropes and attached tram line rope to top of tower ** should have set and attached to higher mast prusik - ground crew were having difficulty keeping antenna orientation which occasionally put pressure on the antenna elements - didn't plan orientation out well enough to insure bracket was facing the tower by the time it got up (removed support ropes before I realized this, making it impossible to lower a short bit and spin around) - after several attempts at flipping the antenna around, I gave up, due to simultaneous interference from guy wires below and vertical antenna's ground plane radials above - attached bracket with antenna upside-down, loosened bracket, and proceeded to rotate antenna boom so antenna was right-side-up - as antenna was about 90 of 180 degrees rotated, the front half of the antenna suddenly separated from the bracket and fell uncontrolled to the ground, bending several elements on impact - as the front departed the bracket, the back quickly spun around to face straight down. it was kept from separating from the bracket by a strap that was being used as a safety to prevent the antenna from falling while the bracket was loose. - it was then that I realized the antenna's boom was composed of two separate sections, connected inside the bracket. The connection was not visible while the bracket was installed, and the bracket functioned similar to a hose clamp, keeping the slightly larger and smaller nested boom sections together. - the back half of the bean was lowered down for antenna repair. will have to reinstall it at a later date. - lessons learned: 1. plan carefully when tramming up an antenna to make sure that the antenna is upright and bracket is facing the tower when it gets to the top 2. inspect antenna to determine if it uses a single or multi-section boom.