My planned antennas - w/ pics

[towerclimber37]

Nope, remove the bolt that supports it and slide it down inside the tower.
"I always overbuild everything."
OK then, add a cross brace to prevent the mast from falling down inside the tower when the bolt is removed. That's a whole lot easier than trying to retrieve it from its cage should you lose control.

You don't even have to do that..if your center mast extension is beefy enough, you can just drill a hole all the way through it, close to the bottom of the antenna, and run a big beefy long, bolt through it. that way it'll stop the mast before it strips the antenna from the mast at turns the mast extension into a lawn dart.

that way there's less weight on the tower.

 

[kb2vxa]

By what you're saying it looks like the tower would survive the winds but I can't say your antennas wouldn't end up in the next county. When a tower is guyed or bracketed securely to an existing structure all the base does is support the weight so what kind of soil it's sitting in is unimportant. Known for our nor'easters and winter gales with nothing but sand south of the Raritan River you better believe our towers are tied down with battleship chains.

As for your mast, like I said Rat Shack steel antenna mast is quite strong enough to hold that antenna without bending even at the full 10' length. At my last QTH I had 15' of it bracketed to a fire escape railing and it somehow managed to survive several years worth of severe storms even with a heavy wind load as you can see. Note the picture but please forgive my shooting out the window with my crappy web cam. Electrical conduit (EMT) probably will bend (it's meant to with a pipe bender) with two exceptions, heavy wall steel and aluminium. Steel is a problem since it's not galvanized so it must be painted, preferably with Rust-Oleum and that may give you electrical continuity problems, not good for lightning protection. Trouble with aluminium despite it's light weight is electrolytic corrosion between two dissimilar metals but that takes considerable time so it's worth a try as long as you aren't plagued by wind off the bay and salt air. It's banned here in Ocean County for that reason but I don't know a whole heck of a lot about Frisco. Note: It's listed diameters don't make any sense so if you decide to have a go you'll have to bring a ruler to the racks at the electrical supply house and measure it.

FB on the mole holes, amazingly you didn't get moles stuck in the vacuum cleaner. (;->)

You reminded me of those little baskets that tunneled up my yard when I lived in West Creek. When I stepped on a nest and fell flat on my face I declared war but the little buggers won out in the end, no way to exterminate the whole neighborhood which happens to be surrounded by forest.

So you like my sense of humor do you? I had chipmunks too and one day I startled one and it ran up the drainpipe. Lovely trap it made for itself, as I took the section out I plugged the ends so it couldn't escape before I released it into the mailbox. Being a rural area mail comes by one of those right side drive little trucks driven by a women, perfect for my nefarious plan. Watching from a window I saw the whole thing, when she opened the box it jumped into the cab, you can guess what happened next. Small wonder I didn't get mail for a week and it resumed with a different driver.
"Warren, your sense of humor is amazing!"
Sorry if she disagrees.

 

[jim202]

One of the most important items to consider when building a tower base, is how to get rid of the moisture
that collects on the inside of the tower legs. If you just mount a section of tower on concrete like your
doing here, you need to make sure the bottom of the tower leg is not encased in the concrete. otherwise,
over time, you will get the moisture building up inside the legs and causing it to rust. Plus if your in the
northern states, you have the cold freezing winters. After enough water gets collected and gets above
the frost line, it will freeze. Next thing you know your tower legs just above the concrete look like a
split open banana.

Just thought I would pass this along. Have seen a number of home installs that ended up being cut off
just above the concrete. Now you have a big hunk of concrete in the ground and no tower standing.
Best you could do at that point is grind down the remains of the tower legs and go get a flat plate
mount like you should have used to start with. Use a concrete drill and anchor the plate down and
start stacking your tower again less the piece you destroyed. Guy it back up and your good to go.

Just make sure when you put the plate in that you get it rotated in the right direction. The flat mounting
plates have drain holes in each of the legs to let the moisture drain out.

 

[talkpair]

One of the most important items to consider when building a tower base, is how to get rid of the moisture
that collects on the inside of the tower legs.

I'd like to second that remark..........If you're the kinda person that likes overkill, this would be one of those details I would go beyond the recommendation.

After 25 years in service, my tower has some rust just above the concrete.......I really thought I followed Rohn's instructions to the letter......It's possible there is no water in the legs, but just normal corrosion.

If it last's another 25 years, I'll be happy.

 

[killmoles]

I did put a 6" gravel drainage bed below the tower, so I should be good to go. Time will tell. I could have used the 25GSSB with bolts set in the concrete but I opted to embed a tower section since I had plenty of that and Rohn says it's ok.

 

[towerclimber37]

I did put a 6" gravel drainage bed below the tower, so I should be good to go. Time will tell. I could have used the 25GSSB with bolts set in the concrete but I opted to embed a tower section since I had plenty of that and Rohn says it's ok.

lets hope that the concrete didn't plug up the holes on your tower section that was inbedded into the concrete. The best thing I can tell you is that when you have to climb your tower, inspect the base of the tower and look for flaking metal.

 

[killmoles]

This took a bit longer than I planned due to the lack of daylight, colder weather, etc, etc, but it's done for this year. I have some improvements I'd like to make next Spring but it works great and it should keep me and my radios happy all Winter!

I'm pretty sure all the neighbors think I'm trying to contact the home planet. Sorry about the lack of light in a couple pictures, I was busy until right before sunset today and snapped those at the last minute.

 

[wyomingmedic]

Looks most excellent, I think you will enjoy the heck out of that.

If I could find even 1 thing that looks like it might need a workaround, it would be the coax leading to the dipole. It has a long section that is unsupported between the tower and the balun. If you get a lot of ice loading or wind, it may fatigue it to the point of damage.

But, it may very well last 20 years like that.

I like your house bracket. Did you buy Rohns or make your own? I made my own for the Rohn 45 and it saved me a ton of money. Your looks similar, but since I followed Rohn's design closely, it may not just be coincidence.

Great job!!

 

[killmoles]

Thanks medic. I agree about the coax, I couldn't decide what to do with it and I was up there trying to get the last climb done 30 minutes before dark in 40 degree weather with 15 MPH winds. That's one of my possible improvements for next year.

Yes, it's the real Rohn HBUTVRO. Way more than I wanted to spend but I couldn't build something that good myself. Yours looks great!

ETA: I just noticed the two "cat whiskers" poking out past your roof at the bottom of your picture? Is that a DPD Omni-X or something else?

 

[kb2vxa]

Me: OK then, add a cross brace to prevent the mast from falling down inside the tower when the bolt is removed.
Tower Monkey: You don't even have to do that...

No, the antenna base will hold the mast all by itself if it doesn't slip, fall down and go boom. Then when the antenna is carefully removed so may be the mast, then he has a javelin to spear the little buggers. Remember the motto of the 101, DEATH FROM ABOVE. The name of the game is overkill(ing moles) and my game is subtle tongue in cheek humor. Naturally it all went under your head. (;->)

Nice job or as we say in da biz; FB OM! Your neighbors can think you're talking to your home planet if they like, I wouldn't try to change their minds since we have powers beyond their comprehension. On the other hand if asked you can answer like one of my friends did, "It's an old Polish charm for driving away evil spirits." Nosy neighbor took the hint, he vanished in a puff of smoke. Hmmm, that looks like a sloping V off the side of the tower but each side has two wires. I have an idea, are you kin to Tesla trying to kill moles with electric fields? I'll help you patent it, it's patently ridiculous.