Opertunity to get free tower space.

[EC-7]

My friend is lucky enough to have a private company that recently bought some of his land, and they are putting up a (200ft ?) tower very soon. Ground breaking starts this week. The private company (not sure who yet) is planning to rent tower space to T-Mobile, I believe.

I was joking with him today, about him asking them if I can put up some antennas, and he said it was already approved, if he wanted to put something up, for a railroad scanner feed setup. He said the owner would let a few antennas be put up, as long as its all done during the initial construction and setup .

Now Ill know more details of his contract maybe by tomorrow, but Im thinking about taking up this offer/deal. I was thinking about seeing if I can get 2 dual band antennas up there.
1 on 146/440 ham bands
1 on 154/460 business bands.

The tower is in a area where I have no use for it, cause its so far from me to use for a HAM repeater, but I was thinking of leasing out the HAM antenna to a club or 2 pretty cheap.

I was also thinking about getting a license to provide a shared business band repeater there too, and leasing it out. Now I know there can be a lot of legal crap to go thru, but Its just an idea for now.
I figure if I can at least get the antennas and hardline installed and into a shed, thats gonna be the hard/expensive part done and out of the way.
I can build a repeater or get a used Moto system with no problem, so equipment isnt really an issue.

What should I expect with the tower owner/crew, or getting a license for a business system there.
What uses would these be good for? Should I try and get a Wireless Net antenna up there, and rent that to a Wireless ISP?
Im just seeing it as a rare opportunity to get free tower space, and I want to take advantage of it. Even if I cant get a business system up there, thats some great antennas for HAM or scanner use.

 

[fineshot1]

I don't think that the private company that will be leasing out space at this tower site is going to
allow a competitor to come in lease free and compete with them. This will most likely be one of
the conditions that they allow your lease free presence at this site, most likely a non-competition
clause or similar.

 

[EC-7]

I was thinking about that too, and I dont want all the legal BS of leasing it to another business for repeater service. If something goes wrong with the repeater, intermod, licensing, etc.

What should I expect for getting a HAM antenna or two up there?

 

[fineshot1]

What should I expect for getting a HAM antenna or two up there?

Well - I am speculating on this, but - I know of some clubs that pay a lease and some others that are at some tower sites lease free. It all depends on the policies of the tower site owners or those than manage these sites. Those that are at these sites lease free I must assume are allowed to be their because the $ they are not paying are being written off on the annual tax return of the owner or some similar arrangement like that. Most ham clubs have a very tough time finding tower site space at a zero dollar outlay but I do know of some out there in ham land that have this arrangement.

You would do best to discuss this matter with your friend some more about these details.

I won't speculate on the $ amount that can be charged as I have no experience with that.

 

[n5ims]

One thing to consider is that many (dare I say most) tower leasing companies have pretty strict requirements on who is allowed up on their towers to do any work. These include million dollar insurance policies, proper certifications, as well as other requirements. Please save yourself trouble down the road and ask about these prior to taking advantage of "free tower space" as it may get quite expensive once the build team leaves.

 

[rfradioconsult]

Navigating the do's and dont's of anthing associated with tower's especially commercial towers can be a real minefield. Unless you have the financial resources to do everything by the book; especially if you are thinking about offering radio service to the public, you are talking about big bucks to install and keep it on the air; equipment cost, installation and grounding, tower crews, maintenance, licensing, insurance, etc.

 

[Livewire3286]

They do that a lot down in Vegas area. Build up towers and lease the space on them. lasvegas.net a wireless internet provider I used to work for does this. They lease and put up antennas directing the signal. they get the space from large casinos and ther places. So its all possible.

 

[NeFire242]

Not only that, but really a dual band ham antenna on a tower? No, get good quality antennas that are band specific. DB224 DB408, they kick ass. Do it right the first time.

 

[trooperdude]

I was thinking about that too, and I dont want all the legal BS of leasing it to another business for repeater service. If something goes wrong with the repeater, intermod, licensing, etc.

What should I expect for getting a HAM antenna or two up there?

You would need a commercial-quality setup. The primary lessor will require it (as they do where I have my equipment at commercial sites). Most commercial sites have kicked hams off of their sites due to poor system quality/design:

Certified tower climber + liability insurance to mount them
Stationmaster or another quality antenna, no Chinese fiberglass consumer quality hamster stuff you have to replace in 18 months
The DB antennas cited below are excellent choices. I run a set at one site. 10 years, NO problems
Heliax feed line- especially if you are high up on the tower
Quality connectors and waterproofing.
If you expect to transmit, then expect to be required to have commercial equipment, even for ham, including circulators and band pass-band reject cans.

 

[zz0468]

You're kinda going about things backwards. One would normally define the requirement, then look for the site that fills the requirement. In this case, you're trying to define the requirement based the offer for space - not the way to go.

Also, since the deal is offered to you friend, I'd tread cautiously with the assumption that you can do something with it. I suspect the reality is, your friend can do something with it. If the tower company has their wits about them, they wouldn't allow that offer to be transferred to a third party.

Assuming you DO get proper permissions, you'll need to have a good understanding of what the site is capable of, and by that, I mean coverage from the antenna elevations you might be allowed to operate from, power availibility, HVAC system capabilities, stand by power, phone lines, etc.

I've barely scratched the surface.