New antenna tower:

[pddispatcher]

Did you run into any SWR issues with your verticals installed on the side arms of the tower...

I'm considering putting my Maco V5/8 or purcashing like an Antron 99 for 10/12M operations and installing on my 60 foot tower myself and installing the Diamond V2000 6/2/440 antenna on a side arm.

I'm also considering installing my 4 element cushcraft beam fixed South towards the Nashville repeater as all the repeaters I can hit is full quieting doesn't matter if I'm on the ground plane or the beam heading north.

All thoughts and suggestions based on your experiences are greatly appreciated and will be well considered.

Your thoughts and advice w/ a

 

[pddispatcher]

BTW,

Where did you get your tower side arms and how much was they?

 

[W9GC]

I fabricated the arms out of steel fence pipe and two aluminum 90 degree fence elbows, the parts only cost a few dollars and can be purchased at Home Depot. Below is a "schematic" I drew up describing how I made them. They are very simple, cost-efficient and effective. (I posted the graphic a few pages back, but here it is again for those that missed it.)

I have not experienced any SWR issues. All the side-mounted antennas are approximately 40" away from the tower. The only issues I have noticed are directional issues, and even this seems minimal.

I live about 200 miles north of Nashville, but during band openings I'm usually able to get into the 147.015 repeater from my Diamond X200a and use their IRLP. It's a great system.

Mike_NZ:

Nope, no coax lightning arrestors. Past experience has proven to me that if lightning decides to strike my tower, it will take everything on it with it, no matter how well grounded it is. Lightning arrestors become small, melted piles of metal fused to the scorched coax and the radios at the end of the coax become toasted circuit boards encased in smoke-filled boxes.

I have found the best "Lightning Protection" is disconnecting the radios when not in use or during a storm.

 

[pddispatcher]

How long is the piece that goes from the Aluminum Elbow 1 closest to the tower the one the farthest away?

And I guess easist is to take the antenna down and then mount it to the side arm then install it ?

 

[W9GC]

How long is the piece that goes from the Aluminum Elbow 1 closest to the tower the one the farthest away?

About 40 inches.

And I guess easist is to take the antenna down and then mount it to the side arm then install it ?

Yes, this has proven to be the easiest way.

 

[W9GC]

Latest addition:

Added a tower strobe today... I'm only 109 feet, 4 inches to the tip so it's more for looks than necessity.

The photo quality is rather poor; I had to pull a still frame from a video recorded in low light. Ever try to snap a photo of a strobe light in the 1/100th of a second that it's illuminated? Sucks.

 

[sjcscanner]

wow. that tower is sooo perrty!

 

[tmfok7]

You did good on the pic... Love the crossing con-trails overhead. Nice job!

 

[N1SQB]

Well Done!
Green has never been my favorite color,but I'm now immensed in it with envy.
Man,That looks great! As a Ham, I can appreciate having the ability to DX with something that tall. I want one! Maybe I missed it somewhere but how long is your longest coax run?
Antenna to receiver.

Manny

 

[W9GC]

how long is your longest coax run? Antenna to receiver.

My longest coax run is to the IMAX and it is 105 feet long.

Al the other runs are about 75 feet long.

 

[N8DRC]

Hello
How many pieces is the tower seven?

 

[W9GC]

Yes, the tower is in seven 10' sections.

Today's job... added the second strobe light.

The lights are powered by a Tomar 776-1228 28 volt power supply and can flash in an alternating pattern or in unison. I currently have them wired to flash in unison, I think they look better that way.

 

[N8DRC]

Hello
Can you post a pic of the guy wires attatched to the ground? I just need some ideas I also have 7 ten foot sections I will be putting up sometime soon..Thanks.

 

[W9GC]

Dan:

The guy wires are not attached to the ground, but to various objects on the property... a tree and 6x6 treated posts. All the wires are attached at about 10' up to avoid becoming a hazard to anybody walking into them.

I used 3 inch steel "eye screws" as pictured below to attach the guy wires to the tree/posts.

 

[N8DRC]

Very good, thanks for the info..

 

[kb0nly]

Wha??

Ok i just got browsing on here tonight and came across this...

Your guy wires are only connected to three inch long screw eyes into various wooden items on the property? Wow.. glad i'm not your neighbor!!

I am glad to see that you at least put two sets of guy wires on it, every 30ft is a minimum on this type of tower so your ok there, just don't get ahead of yourself and put too much more weight on the top. If you do put a set of guys at 30, 50, and 70, just to stiffen it and provide for more weight related stress at the top.

But beware of those screw eyes, i have seen them snap under stress. A guy near me, about two blocks over, had 50ft of Rohn 25G installed next to his house with a wall bracket at the edge of the roof, the rest of the tower was supported by a set of guy wires at the 50ft level and he used screw eyes like that. One to a tree in the back yard, one to a tree in the front yard, and one to the opposite end of the roof. One day we had a storm with high winds and straight line winds that topped at about 60mph, his tower shook enough to snap one of those screw eyes. After the storm he found the guy wire laying across the yard but the tower was still luckily intact, though he only had an average size scanner antenna on the top of a 8ft mast and a small tv antenna on it.

If you lost one of your top guy wires in a storm with the amount of weight you have up there be ready for a roof dart. Do your investment in an otherwise beautiful setup and ground anchor those guy wires. You never know when one of those screw eyes will break. There is also something else to consider.. Trees also get hit by lightning... Wood rots and becomes weak over time, and putting a screw eye in a tree can also sometimes invite disease into an otherwise healthy tree, and so in turn your killing your guy anchor anyway!

Where is the shots of the gear inside connected to it all??

 

[zguy1243]

After reading over all the pages of this thread I would like to offer some advice:

Man please get a safety harness.

Your eye bolts will never hold up. Your guys will snap in a instant if the tower is subject to any high winds. Those screw in hook will pull out for sure. Man I would not climb that tower, or live under it. I am not trying to trash your setup cause man it looks good but please pay some attention to some of the technical pages on Rohn's website that address guying and support/wind loading at certian heights above ground. It would be a shame to see that good looking tower come down.

Jody

 

[W9GC]

I swapped out the Imax2000 on top of the tower today for an Interceptor 10k. This antenna is a huge improvement over the Imax2000 in both transmit and receive. I was hesitant about dropping almost $400.00 on a ground plane antenna, but so far I am extremely impressed with it's performance.

In photo #2 below you will also notice the balun for the HF longwire hanging mid-air. I don't think it was up in the previous photos... Although it would probably be a bit more effective if I lowered it by several feet, this dipole coupled with a Yaesu FC-301 tuner gives me superb 20-160 meter HF coverage, although most of the time I tend to hang out in the 80 meter band on 3800, 3855, and 3922 khz.

Installing the I-10k

The finished product

Close-up view of the I-10k

 

[W9WSS]

A Monster Antenna

That is one bad boy of an antenna. For a while, I had a Sigma omni base antenna, which I replaced with a Imax 2000! The Sigma had intermittent issues, so I had to make a quick and cheap (under $100) solution.

 

[N8DRC]

Looks good, do you take the lights down?