Tower space

[70cutlass442]

Does anyone here have any personal connections, or know of a way (besides spending copious amounts of money) to get on a tower? This is a GMRS system so no profit is to be made, and I know its beyond a long shot asking, but I figured its worth a shot... Im looking mainly for the Waukesha/ New Berlin area. any suggestions?

 

[a1emt]

There is a coopertive group of repeater owners called the Lakes Area GMRS Repeater group (LAG) which has several 'open' GMRS repeaters around the State, including a VERY wide area coverage system located in the New Berlin area. Membership is free and allows access to any of the repeaters associated with the group. Check out www.laggroup.org. Most of the GMRS systems seem very quiet lately and I'm sure would welcome new users. Once you get your repeater up, you may consider alligning it with the group as well.

Tower space is hard (but not impossable) to find on the cheap and often requires insurance and other technical requirements be met. Good luck!

 

[OpSec]

Unfortunately, there aren't many places that would support such a venture any more. A lot of the towers are being gobbled up by large companies which don't do anything for free, no matter the reason. Even the locally owned site space is mostly dried up by now. You would be looking at various RF studies, lengthy legal agreements, insurance and restrictive site rules that make it nigh impossible for a "little guy" to even get the project off the ground (pardon the pun).

Good luck.

 

[n5ims]

Don't forget that being on a commercial tower (paid or not) nearly always requires you to have a certified and insured crew to do any tower work for you. They will simply not allow just anyone to do any work (I've seen them force a paid crew to come and tighten down a cable that was easily reached while standing on the ground). They also require commercial grade components for everything. No ham grade antenna using LMR-400 coax hooked to a couple of radios so they act as a repeater.

 

[davidgcet]

Dave at Milwaukee Repeater Service has towers in that area. you could check with him. he WILL be onsite with you every time you need access, but he is a great guy to work with. He will recommend a tower crew, probably Len or Ashley and they do an excellent job. I've worked with all of them recently on a project we had up there.

i know he has a tower outside of Muskego not far off exit 50 and one in West Allis just off S 92nd, the latter is at his shop. PM me if you need his contact info.

 

[70cutlass442]

PM sent!

 

[W2NJS]

A lot of tower access involves being on friendly terms with the tower owner. For instance, when an FM antenna heater broke on "our" tower we were able to have a new UHF antenna and heliax installed at the same time the service call on the FM unit was made. We paid for the work, but we got a real break pricewise that saved us a lot of money.

 

[fxdscon]

Does anyone here have any personal connections, or know of a way (besides spending copious amounts of money) to get on a tower? This is a GMRS system so no profit is to be made, and I know its beyond a long shot asking, but I figured its worth a shot... Im looking mainly for the Waukesha/ New Berlin area. any suggestions?

PM sent.

 

[davidgcet]

correction, i said Dave and i meant Jack. I recently dealt with QUITE a few different owners up north and for some reason had the names mixed up.