Pics FROM my tower

[wyomingmedic]

Since on one of my previous posts I had pics OF my tower, I figured I would show some FROM the tower. I was up for maintenance and the weather was unseasonably warm, so why not take pictures!!


Here is the view towards Europe. The HF beam is at 50 feet, but the ground slope and hill we are on puts us almost 100 feet over our neighbors. You can see some windmills in the distance, they are 6 miles away and we are at a higher elevation. What you cannot see in the pic (but can with the naked eye) are the windmills over 50 miles away. We have an almost 60 mile unobstructed view to our west, north and east.

The view towards the south. We have an 8500 foot mountain a few miles south of us. On HF, the takeoff angle of the beam gets us over the mountain fine, but on VHF, it is a little more difficult. I can still work simplex on onto the other side. 10 feet above this beam is a Diamond X50NA dual band antenna for my ham radio.

10 feet below the HF beam is a dualband whip and ground plane for scanning. It is mounted out 4 feet from the tower. It is a little lower, but still works great. The other side of the arm has a weather station mounted. Here is one of the FEW times it is not spinning like mad. Hence the reason I was on the tower.

K folks, enjoy!! Be happy I am sucking up so much bandwidth!!

WM

 

[Thunderknight]

Nice pics! I always love pics FROM towers.

You should put a webcam up there! A PTZ (pan tilt zoom) would be best, but otherwise just pick a direction (or mount it on the rotor I imagine you have for the beam).

 

[Go-West]

Nice View!

 

[FFEMTCURRENCE]

thats awesome man

 

[b7spectra]

I could almost see Russia from your tower!

 

[poltergeisty]

K folks, enjoy!! Be happy I am sucking up so much bandwidth!!

WM

Only took a second for me. Nice pics!

 

[ridgescan]

Yeah but your station is WORTH the bandwidth Thanks for some gorgeous views!

 

[MOGA]

That looks like a Larsen BSA series antenna that your using for scanning. I use the same one but for a VHF station. A camera up there would be sweet!

Man someday I hope to have the space to put up a tower. Everything is so much harder to do from within city limits using a rooftop antenna. Nice pics and thanks for sharing.

 

[wyomingmedic]

Yup, larsen NMO2/70 for the scanner. It was my primary mobile antenna for many years, but I went into a parking garage and damaged the closed coil on the antenna.

So now it is used stationary and I now have an open coil Larsen on my truck.

WM

 

[tampabaynews]

Nice tower and view! Be careful up there!

I also like the webcam idea.

 

[geoff5093]

That view is amazing! I'm surprised you were able to put up such a tall and busy tower though with so many neighbors nearby.

 

[wyomingmedic]

That view is amazing! I'm surprised you were able to put up such a tall and busy tower though with so many neighbors nearby.

Thanks!!

And since we are in Wyoming, nobody can say a thing. I am able to go up to 70 feet without a permit or anything, anything taller would require a site survey. But my lot is big enough to go up to 200 feet if I wanted.

And folks here don't really care anyway. As long as it is on my property, they pretty much don't notice.

WM

 

[commscanaus]

+1 on the webcam idea!
The pictures are awesome- nice countryside!

Approaching storms and sunsets would look sensational from up there!

What is the hut up on the hill in picture 4?
Are there any radio services on that hill?

I would give my right arm for a tower like that.

Commscanaus.

 

[wyomingmedic]

That is a water tank. We are at the same level as the tower. That tank serves several thousand homes.

There is a cell tower on that hill. There would probably be one on the hill we live on, but there is already a tower here

Most of the radio towers for everything from business to emergency services to broadcast TV and radio are on the mountain.

I would love to put a camera up there. It would be easy. Maybe I will look into that.

WM

 

[kb0nly]

I had a camera on the top of my one tower, turned it with the rotor, it was a commercial CCTV camera in a outdoor enclosure with heater and fan. Did ok, but it wasn't the best environment for the camera regardless, the camera died a month ago and i had to replace it, not sure why, i think the extremes of hot and cold finally got to it, being up on the tower it was fully exposed to the weather. In the winter time the heater wasn't enough to keep the ice off, and in the summer time you would have to go up there monthly to clean the lens to see a clear picture. It worked good til it died though.

After it died i pulled it off the tower, and after putting a new camera in the enclosure i relocated it onto the house in a more accessible location for maintenance purposes, and its a little more shielded weather wise as well.

If you do decide to do it, get a good outdoor enclosure, a CCTV camera with Auto Iris is essential, or a camera with an auto iris period, and then if you can dedicate a computer to it for web streaming. I use a computer with a USB EasyCap video capture device and run the YawCam software to upload it to my website and stream it on my LAN.

 

[gewecke]

Yup, larsen NMO2/70 for the scanner. It was my primary mobile antenna for many years, but I went into a parking garage and damaged the closed coil on the antenna.

So now it is used stationary and I now have an open coil Larsen on my truck.

WM

GREAT pics!! Kudos on the diamond X50,I use the same one myself.
n9zas

 

[N8DRC]

Great tower and photos, what make is the HF beam? Hy-Gain?

 

[wyomingmedic]

Great tower and photos, what make is the HF beam? Hy-Gain?

It is a Hygain TH6 DXX Thunderbird. The main boom is 2 inch aluminum at 24 feet long. The longest element is 32 feet across.

Here is a previous thread where I posted pics OF the setup.

http://forums.radioreference.com/pictures-your-shack-mobile-setup/193537-my-home-shack.html

WM

 

[W2NJS]

I like your grounding scheme with the zappers inline with the feedlines, and being outside instead of inside is the way to do it. I run two X50A antennas, one at home and one on a 4,000 foot mountain in Virginia and both have been up for more than five years with not problems at all.

 

[wyomingmedic]

Thanks,

I take my lightning protection VERY seriously. I am on top of a large hill and am prone to lightning. Those are Alpha Delta's gas tube discharge units. They can continually shunt off smaller charges (such as static from wind) and "reset", but can take a massive jolt and shunt continually to ground. They are fast enough to pop and save mosfet transmitters, but can be easily replaced. They also have DC continuity in case you want to run external devices.

I think it is something too commonly overlooked by most folks.

WM