The following is a series of articles on describing the process I went through to install my first tower. It has now been 2 years since the tower became operational and it has worked flawlessly.
My First Tower
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.
After I had made the decision to put up a tower I realized I didn’t know where to start. After doing some initial research on the internet I found a few sites where other hams chronicled their own tower installations. Most of those sites focused on the actual installation of the tower and did not cover any of the preliminary steps such as:
- Site selection
- Building permit preparation and approval
- tower and antenna selection
- RF Exposure analysis
- Selection of all of the other components needed to make the system work (rotor, rotor control, coax, rotor cable, switching and lightning protection and grounding).
I then purchased three books that I found very helpful. They were Up the Tower, by Steve Morris, Antenna Towers for Radio Amateurs by Don Daso and Antenna Zoning for the Radio Amateur by Fred Hopengarten. After reading each of these books cover to cover I quickly realized that a lot of planning and preparation would be needed to insure a reliable, long lasting and well performing tower installation.
My next step was to contact W9RE, a local ham I knew had significant experience installing and maintaining towers. W9RE, Mike, is a legend in the ham radio world for his world class performance in contests. His station also has a world class antenna farm!
Mike visited my house and helped me scope out a couple of potential locations for the tower. Mike pointed out that a number of trees would have to be removed to make room for the tower and beams. It also appeared that additional trees might have to be removed to make the space needed to actually erect the tower. Mike also, suggested the names of a couple of hams that might be willing to do a turnkey installation.
Woods Behind House
I thought my dreams of a tower were about to come to and end since my wife was not pleased at the prospect of having to remove a lot of trees to make room for a tower. Fortunately, another event occurred that made the issue of the trees a moot point. Our septic system failed. After a visit by the local health inspector it was determined that we would have to install a new septic field. Because of the new stringent regulations governing septic systems in our county we were told we would have to clear nearly an acre of woods behind our house to make room for the new septic field! I would not be allowed to install my tower in the septic field, but the removal of nearly 100 trees would open up a lot of space that could be used to erect the tower.
Tree Removal Begins
The process of clearing the field for the new septic field started in December 2010. However, because of the weather and other factors the tree removal took nearly four months. The building code required that the trees and a large portion of the roots had to be removed. Her are a few more photos showing that process. There were chains saws, a bulldozer and backhoe busy for weeks clearing the field to make room for the new septic system. Several tri-axles full of wood had to be hauled away.
After Trees Removed
New Driveway
The next issue we ran into was that we had to build a second driveway to provide access to the new septic field otherwise we would have to wait until August for the ground to get solid enough to bring in the tanks, gravel and other items needed for the septic system.
The photo to the right shows the new driveway before it was layered with 15 loads of crushed stone.
In the end, the new driveway was very useful during the tower installation. It enabled easy access by the concrete trucks and ultimately by the 120′ crane that was used to erect the tower and antennas.
Portion of the New Driveway and the unassembled Tower
The photo to the right shows a portion of the new driveway along with several tower sections waiting to be assembled. The dirt to the right is from the excavation for the tower base.
In the next installment I’ll talk about the preparing the building permit and some of the other planning that had to happen before actually starting the construction of the tower.
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:
- A description of the tower along with the various codes that the tower complied with. I also included an engineering drawing of the tower.
- Drawing showing property line and road setback distances
- Technical drawing of the tower base (downloaded from the Trylon website)
- 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.
- 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
Once the tower was selected I started the process of nailing down what antennas would be on the tower. Since I felt this would probably be the only tower I ever have installed, some of my key requirements were:
- Get the maximum band coverage from the antennas on the tower ( 40m thru 70 cm)
- The antennas had to have a good reliability history with a minimum of parts that might fail (traps or moving parts).
- Install long life feed-lines (hardline)
- An oversized rotor to reduce the risk of a rotor failure
- Chrome Molly mast
- 60-70′ self supporting tower
- Dual thrust bearings; so the rotor could be easily replaced without removing the antennas
- Only two feed-lines to the ham shack (switching required at the base of the tower in a weather proof enclosure)
- High quality lightening protection
- Select tower to withstand 110 mph wind without ice and a 85 mph with 1/2 inch of ice.
Ultimately the primary antenna I selected was an M2 10-30 LP8, 8 element log periodic, which covers 30m to 10m. For 40m I selected a Cushcraft XM-240 2 element yagi and for 6m, 2m and 70cm I selected a Cushcraft A627013S.
The rotor I selected was an M2 Orion 2800P w/o their controller. I ordered a Green Heron RT-21 rotor controller. The RT-21was recommended by Don, because he felt it was much more dependable than the Orion rotor control box. The Green Heron control is fantastic!
Once the material list was completed and had been approved by Don, I began to place orders. Some of the items had longer lead times than others. As the materials arrived I marked them as having arrived on the Excel spreadsheet. Once all of the materials had arrived it was time to construct the tower base.
Digging the Hole
The 70′ Trylon Super Titan requires a large base. I chose the pad and pier design from their design guidelines. The pad is 10′ by 10′ x 2.5′ with a 5′ x 5′ x 5′ pier. The base took nearly 16 yards of concrete.
Pouring the Pad
Once the 10′ x 10′ x 7′ deep hole was completed it was time to pour the pad.
Pouring the Pad
Once the pad was pour a second pour was made for the pier.
Completed Base
Once the forms were removed we got our first look at the mammoth chunk of concrete.
Base After Final Grade
The final step was to use a use a motorized soil compactor to pack the soil tightly against the base. This was followed by a final grade and grass seed. The tower base was sprayed several times a day to assist in the curing. The base then had to wait thirty days before the tower could be installed.
In the next installment well move into the antenna assembly and tower installation.
Until next time.
73,
Fred
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:
- Construct the three antennas and position them on the ground where they could be picked by the crane.
- Cut and terminate the 5 runs of Heliax that would be going up the tower
- Bolt the 7 tower sections together and install the step bolts up one side of the tower.
- Fabricate and install a stronger rotor plate, and an additional thrust bearing plate.
- Construction of the tower control box which holds the lightning protection and antenna switching.
- Construct the coax jumper loops which connect each antenna to its corresponding Heliax.
- Install the two thrust bearings on the tower
- 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.
- Do a final check on the rotor before lifting the tower.
- Weather proof all connections on the antennas
- 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
After a year of planning and preparation it was finally time to install the tower. The previous 5 articles focused on the preparations that led up to installation day.
Crane Lifting Tower
Don, K4ZA, would be using a crane for the tower installation. The first step was to lift the assembled tower into position and bolt it to the concrete base. This took a fairly tall crane because the tower was 70′ tall and the crane was sitting nearly 10′ lower than the tower base. Don selected a 100′ crane with an additional 20′ Jib. Fortunately the crane operator did not have install the jib because that would have added a couple of hours to the time onsite. The photo at the right shows the crane beginning to lift the tower.
Tower Being Positioned Over Base
Once the tower was fully vertical, the crane operator eased it over the concrete base so that the ground crew could attach the tower to the Trylon base section.
Once the tower was aligned to the base, twelve bolts were used to attach it to the base. Once the tower was secured to the base Don climbed up the tower to begin the installation of the antennas.
The procedure to install the antennas involved installing the highest antenna first, followed by the next highest and finally installation of the lowest antenna. After each antenna was attached to the mast, the mast was raised using a come-along which had been attached between the lower portion of the chrome-molly mast and the top thrust bearing plate at the top of the tower.
Lifting XM-240
Since highest antenna was the small Cushcraft 2m, 6m and 70cm antenna it was decided it would be easier to install the XM-240B (2 element 40m beam) first. The photo to the right shows the ground crew guiding the 40m beam as the crane operator lifted it to Don. Our job was to keep it properly aligned so that Don could pull it to the mast and an install the U bolts.
XM-240 Being Lifted Into Position by the Crane
The next two photos show the 40m beam being lifted into position and Don attaching the beam to the mast.
Attachment of the 40m Beam to the Mast
Installing 2m, 6m and 70cm Beam
Once the 40m beam was in place, the small Cushcraft beam was attached above the 40m beam.
Installing M2 10-30 LP8
The final antenna we lifted was the monster 8 element 10-30 mHz M2 log periodic. The log periodic has a 30 foot boom and a maximum element length of 55 ft. We experienced a lot of excitement lifting this antenna because one of the elements slipped behind the chain on the crane boom when it got hit by a gust of wind. It took several minutes to maneuver the beam out of the chain. I think my heart stopped for a few seconds until the LP8 popped out of the crane chain.
Settling up with the Crane Operator
After all of the antennas had been attached to the mast it was time to pay the crane operator and get him on his way. Time is literally money when you are dealing with cranes.
After the crane work was completed Don spent a couple more hours finishing the antenna and rotor installation. The Heliax, rotor cable and weather proofing of all of the connectors were completed the next day.
Completed Tower and Antennas
After everything was done we celebrated with a nice steak dinner!
73,
Fred