Base After Final Grade

After the tower base was completed it had to cure for at least 30 days before the tower could be installed.  In my case that was not a problem, because the tower based was allowed to cure for about 6 weeks while I waited for one of the antennas and a few remaining hardware items to arrive.

Finally by mid September  everything had arrived.  It was now time for the big event.  Don said that I should plan on a full week for the installation because several things had to be completed during that week prior to erecting the tower and antennas.   Some of the major items that had to be completed were:

1. Construct the three antennas and position them on the ground where they could be picked by the crane.
2. Cut and terminate the 5 runs of Heliax that would be going up the tower
3. Bolt the 7 tower sections together and install the step bolts up one  side of the tower.
4. Fabricate and install a stronger rotor plate, and an additional thrust bearing plate.
5. Construction of  the tower control box which holds the lightning protection and antenna switching.
6. Construct the coax jumper loops which connect each antenna to its corresponding Heliax.
7. Install the two thrust bearings on the tower
8. Anchor the antenna mast inside the tower and install a large anchor at the top of he tower so that a come-along can be used the raise the mast as antennas are installed.
9. Do a final check on the rotor before lifting the tower.
10. Weather proof all connections on the antennas
11. Tripple check every item that will be installed on the tower, including: antennas, rotor, bearings, rotor cable etc.  It is much easier to fix an item when it is sitting on the ground than once it is 70′ in the air.

This list shows the major items that had to be completed before the tower could be installed.  I left out a few of the items; including a half dozen trips to the hardware store to pickup a few odds and ends including over 20 saw horses to hold the antennas during assembly.

Assembly of M2 10-30LP8

Assembly of the antennas was a much bigger job than I had anticipated.  One of the first steps is to find an area big enough to build two large beams so that they can be picked up by the crane.

This was not an easy task since there were still a number of large trees remaining in the backyard.

We started with the M2 10-30 LP8 which has a 30 ft boom and 8 elements with the longest being 55 feet tip-to-tip.  It is important to carefully read and follow the instructions and re-check all the work at least two times.  A final step was to check the antenna with an antenna analyzer (MFJ-259B) to make sure it was performing like an antenna (low SWR an resonant at all the right frequencies).  The  assembly of the LP8 took 1-1/2 long days.  The XM240 took another day to assemble.  The small 2m, 6m and 70cm multi-beam only took a couple of hours to assemble.

Assembling Tower Sections

Once the antennas were all assembled the next step was to complete the assembly of the tower.  This included bolting the tower sections together installing the large step bolts on one leg of the tower.  The tower sections were quite heavy so I had to use my tractor to move them into position.

Don Assembling Control Box

Once the tower was assembled we had to move on to the construction of the control box and coax jumpers.  The Control box contained two Ameritron remote coax switches, and lighting protectors for each of the incoming feedlines and the rotor lines.  The box is bolted to the tower and has a ground conductor that is connected to tower ground system which consists of 6 ground rods.

Control Box

The partially completed control box was attached to the tower after the tower was erected.  The six lightning arrestors are the bulkhead type mounted to the top of the control box.  An “O” ring and stainless steel washer was used to seal the hole where the lightning arrestor passes through the control box.  The small box on the mid-right side of the box is the protector for the rotor.  Only four of the 8 connections were required for my application.

Tower Showing new Rotor and Thrust Bearing Shelves

The photo to the right shows the top of the tower with the rotor plate and two thrust bearing plates installed.  The rotor plate that came with the tower was made of 12 gage  sheet metal and was a bit too flimsy when you consider it would be supporting a heavy rotor and absorbing the torque of the heavy antennas and Chrome Moly mast.  I was fortunate enough to find a local machine show that was able to laser cut a new rotor mounting plate from 1/4″ steel plate. They also made new thrust bearing plates.

I think many of the cases where the bolts that hold the rotor in place work their way loose over time are probably caused by flexing of light gage rotor shelves.

In the next installment I will show the actual installation of the tower and antennas.

73,

Fred

While I was waiting for the woods to be cleared I started the process of preparing my application for a building permit.  The first step was obtain a copy of the county zoning regulations.  I was able to download the latest zoning regulations from County Zoning Boards website.

The next step was to read the regulation cover to cover (several times) paying particular attention to any language dealing with towers and tall structures.  The information for towers and tall structures was spread out through the entire document.  After highlighting the appropriate sections I started gathering the information that would be needed for the building permit.  This is where Fred Hopengarten’s book, Antenna Zoning for the Radio Amateur, was very helpful.  His book contains a CD that has sample applications and a number of other useful documents and references.

Many of the requirements in the Zoning Regulations were designed to address cellular phone towers.  Unfortunately, the regulation did not specifically address amateur radio structures and the language which addressed cell phone towers did not exclude amateur radio towers.  The sections on towers included a number of requirements I would be unable to comply with.  I therefore called the zoning department and spoke with a very helpful lady that my tower would be considered as a farm “structure” rather than a tower.  She pointed out that since I live an area which is zoned rural, the requirements for my tower were not covered by the section on radio towers but in the section on farm structures (silos etc.).  As long as my tower was under 100′ in height and I met the setback requirements, I would not need present my application at a zoning board meeting; which was a huge relief.  All I had to do was drop off the regulation at the zoning department along with a check!

The final application included:

1. A description of the tower along with the various codes that the tower complied with.  I also included an engineering drawing of the tower.
2. Drawing showing property line and road setback distances
3. Technical drawing of the tower base (downloaded from the Trylon website)
4. I also included a copy of my RF exposure analysis even though it was not a requirement for the permit but had to be done to comply with the FCC requirements.  I found an website where I could load in my information on power, distances and antenna gains and perform the calculations.
5. I also included a Photoshop created image of what the tower would look like from the street.  Fred explained how to do this in his book.

Photoshop Created Image Showing How the Tower Would Appear when Installed

It is amazing how close the final installation looks like the initial Photoshop created drawing.  You may need to click on the photo to see the tower hidden in the trees just to the left of the house.  The actual tower looks nearly identical to this Photoshop mockup when viewed from the same location.

Once I submitted my permit and paid my application fee I had a building permit in my hands within a week.  I feel fortunate compared to many hams that find it nearly impossible to obtain the critical building permit or need to go through months or years of back and forth with their zoning boards.

At the same time I was preparing the building permit application, I contacted Don Daso, K4ZA, to see if he would be available to install my tower.  He said he would be available, but it would be a several months before he could actually start the work.  He suggested that he perform a site survey during one of his upcoming trips to work with another client.  Prior to the site survey I sent Don my preliminary specifications (tower height, antenna selections etc).  During the site survey Don suggested several changes to my preliminary list.  Most were aimed at improving the reliability of components on the tower (rotor, antenna selections, hardline versus coax, lightening protections and antenna selections.

At this point Don and I began to pass an Excel spreadsheet back and forth through email so that he could continue to review and approve as I made the suggested changes.  The Excel spreadsheet was also used to keep track who would provide the various components that would be needed (me or Don).  I also used this spreadsheet to track the order and delivery of all the stuff after the orders were placed, and to keep track of the project costs.

Don also contacted me and told me he had found a nearly new takedown tower that was identical to the one I had planned to purchase.  I contacted the owner of the tower and we agreed on a price.  Don then  picked up the tower and  dropped at my place on his way to another client. Don saved me a bundle on the tower.  The Trylon Super Titan was like new and I got it for about 40% the cost of a new tower.

In the next installment I’ll briefly describe the hardware on the tower and the start of the construction process.

73,

Fred

Completed Tower and Beams

I, like most hams have always longed for bigger and better antennas.  For most of my time as a ham I lived in sub-divisions that would only allow very discrete antennas.  None of these locations had trees large enough for hanging wire antennas, so my only antennas for many years were short verticals.  These verticals seemed to work pretty well, but didn’t provide opportunities for much DX because they were short and had only a few short radials.

After I moved to the country in 1993, I dreamed of installing a tower with a beam but for nearly 15 years my job kept me from spending much time much with my radio equipment or antennas.  In 2008 I retired and found I had a lot more time to spend with my radios.  I installed a 135′ doublet up 50 feet between two of our large trees and suddenly I was working DX I had never heard on my verticals.  After chasing DX for a couple of years using the doublet I got the itch to install some sort of beam antenna.  In the next several posts I will walk you my experiences (good and bad) of installing my dream tower and beams.