Posted: 6/21/2013 6:57:26 AM EDT
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I've done a little bit of searching but did not see a dedicated tower thread here.
I'm interested in a small tower and it sure would be nice to see what other folks have, hear how they like it, what they would do differently, etc. Am I just missing it? 
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What about the smaller crank up/down towers out there?
I've seen some that crank down to a "folded" length of 10-12 feet then lay over on the side. When you want to operate you tilt it back up and extend the sections with a crank. Sounds simple enough, anyone have something like that? Not sure what antennas would work with something like that, verticals maybe? |
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I have a Mosley Mini32-A tribander up on a extendable push up mast at about 30 feet. It uses 3 sets of 4 guy wires at 120 degrees part around the mast.
If cost is an restriction I have seen a retractable mast made out of aluminum irrigation pipe. It used a series of ropes and pulleys to extend all the sections at once. The guy had it setup to mount on Ecomm trailer. I have looked and the pipe is dirt cheap if you are looking for used stuff. This is the pipe they use for farmland irrigation and can often be found with a damaged end for free. Linky Link |
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Towers are expensive. Not only the cost of the tower, but the install as well. Even a free tower can cost a good amount to erect. I've never put up a tower before, or even helped, but how hard do you think it would be to stand up a 30' or 40' tower that hinges at the bottom? I was thinking some pulleys in a tree and hook to a truck and stand it right up. The sections seem to range from 120 to 160 lbs per 10' section so we aren't talking about a tremendous amount of weight. Sure, there will be some costs, especially concrete, but I don't see why I couldn't get up a decent little tower for around $1,500, give or take, before accessories. Even cheaper if you find used section of Rohn 25 or 45 for $100 a pop. |
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I've got a 30' Universal tip-up, non-guyed (self-supporting). Cost an arm and a leg, but is a really nice tower. 3 sections. We tipped it up originally with just the TV antenna on it, but it was just barely doable with 2 of us. Extra antenna installs/wiring were done by climbing it. Bought a real nice solid gin pole setup that we never used.
With the wind loading of all the antennas I need, it rates as good to 130mph winds, hope I never have to find out. :-) Required a 4'x4'x4' hole (filled with concrete) as a base. Too much to do by hand, had a truck come over and do the pour. A lot of money went into it, but it certainly could have been a LOT more too. I had a handyman friend help me, and I'm thinking 40' or higher and the cost would have started climbing even more... |
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I have a Mosley Mini32-A tribander up on a extendable push up mast at about 30 feet. It uses 3 sets of 4 guy wires at 120 degrees part around the mast. If cost is an irrigation and can often be found with a damaged end for free. Linky Link I've been thinking something like this would be very doable. I never thought about a piece of irrigation pipe, but that stuff is super light. A hand crank boat winch, a couple of hitch pins. A small welder and a little angle iron, very easy to crank up. I might just have to extend mine. |
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120 pounds per section of Rohn 25? Wow, I didn't think it was that heavy. My "crew" walked down the 4 bottom sections of a 56' freestanding tower. It was hinged at the bottom and we used extension ladders to "grab" it between the rungs. One guy would hold the tower up while the other re-positioned lower down on the tower with another ladder. We walked it down until the tower was resting on the lower ladder. Then the guy "higher up" would re-position his ladder below the other and repeat. I don't see why you couldn't walk one up that way.
If we knew how easy it was to walk it down with the ladders, we wouldn't have had to remove the top 3 sections, just the antenna and rotor. 
Sections we walked down 
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120 pounds per section of Rohn 25? Wow, I didn't think it was that heavy. It isn't, I just checked again. It's 40 pounds per section of 25 and 70 pounds per section of 45. I was doing some research really late last night and mixed something up for sure. Knowing what you just told me makes me think I can get one up in the air fairly easily. I don't want something 100' tall. I just want a beam but I do not want anything roof mounted. A small tower seems like the logical thing to do. 30' will clear the house and I live on top of a ridge, so the performance difference between 30 and 100' probably wouldn't be worth the price difference. |
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Getting ready to install a 70ft tower in the next 2 months. Most parts were purchased and ready to go. Will take pictures if anyone is interested. The plan is to install a Mosley PRO-57B Yagi and maybe a 5 el. vertically polarized VHF/UHF beam. Please keep us posted every step of the way. 
Are you going to let your concrete harden for 28 days before you continue, or what's the plan with that? |
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Getting ready to install a 70ft tower in the next 2 months. Most parts were purchased and ready to go. Will take pictures if anyone is interested. The plan is to install a Mosley PRO-57B Yagi and maybe a 5 el. vertically polarized VHF/UHF beam. Please keep us posted every step of the way.
Are you going to let your concrete harden for 28 days before you continue, or what's the plan with that? Yes, the plan is to pour concrete at the end of July and install the tower 4+ weeks later. I'm going with a Rohn 25 guyed tower. The original plan was to install a 33ft. free-standing heavy duty crank-up tower but 33ft. is just not enough for 20 meters. I plant to install the crank-up tower later with a 3 el HF Cubic Quad antenna. Qubic Quads are not as picky about height and offer outstanding performance with very low RX noise. |
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Getting ready to install a 70ft tower in the next 2 months. Most parts were purchased and ready to go. Will take pictures if anyone is interested. The plan is to install a Mosley PRO-57B Yagi and maybe a 5 el. vertically polarized VHF/UHF beam. Please keep us posted every step of the way.
Are you going to let your concrete harden for 28 days before you continue, or what's the plan with that? Yes, the plan is to pour concrete at the end of July and install the tower 4+ weeks later. I'm going with a Rohn 25 guyed tower. The original plan was to install a 33ft. free-standing heavy duty crank-up tower but 33ft. is just not enough for 20 meters. I plant to install the crank-up tower later with a 3 el HF Cubic Quad antenna. Qubic Quads are not as picky about height and offer outstanding performance with very low RX noise. What PSI concrete is specified? |
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Getting ready to install a 70ft tower in the next 2 months. Most parts were purchased and ready to go. Will take pictures if anyone is interested. The plan is to install a Mosley PRO-57B Yagi and maybe a 5 el. vertically polarized VHF/UHF beam. Please keep us posted every step of the way.
Are you going to let your concrete harden for 28 days before you continue, or what's the plan with that? Yes, the plan is to pour concrete at the end of July and install the tower 4+ weeks later. I'm going with a Rohn 25 guyed tower. The original plan was to install a 33ft. free-standing heavy duty crank-up tower but 33ft. is just not enough for 20 meters. I plant to install the crank-up tower later with a 3 el HF Cubic Quad antenna. Qubic Quads are not as picky about height and offer outstanding performance with very low RX noise. What PSI concrete is specified? Rohn specs 4000 PSI concrete (if memory serves me right). I'm thinking of buying 5000 PSI concrete from one of those trucks that can mix it on site. |
I'm a stacker. Put up a section, haul the next one up. Pull a section, drop it down. I've never walked one down but I know plenty of people that have. Hire a crane to put the antennas up. Really makes it a dream for the guys on the tower (especially if they're 100' up). 
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I have a pretty good setup. Rohn SSV (commercial free-stander) that goes up 100', with a six meter up top and a Mosley tribander with WARC elements under that. The SSV tower is nice because it doesn't need guy wires. It did require a huge base though. Something around 14 yards of cement in a 9x9x4' deep slab. Big cage of 7/8 rebar in there, with a Rohn dedicated base section.
If you search youtube for "SSV tower base" you should be able to find my three videos showing the base install, tower erection (he he he) and antennas. |
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Getting ready to install a 70ft tower in the next 2 months. Most parts were purchased and ready to go. Will take pictures if anyone is interested. The plan is to install a Mosley PRO-57B Yagi and maybe a 5 el. vertically polarized VHF/UHF beam. Please keep us posted every step of the way.
Are you going to let your concrete harden for 28 days before you continue, or what's the plan with that? Yes, the plan is to pour concrete at the end of July and install the tower 4+ weeks later. I'm going with a Rohn 25 guyed tower. The original plan was to install a 33ft. free-standing heavy duty crank-up tower but 33ft. is just not enough for 20 meters. I plant to install the crank-up tower later with a 3 el HF Cubic Quad antenna. Qubic Quads are not as picky about height and offer outstanding performance with very low RX noise. What PSI concrete is specified? Rohn specs 4000 PSI concrete (if memory serves me right). I'm thinking of buying 5000 PSI concrete from one of those trucks that can mix it on site. If you get 5000 and have them add a high early admixture you will likely have 4000 psi in a week. Good concrete should have 75% of design strength in 7 days, and 100% in 28 days. I've worked on projects where design strength was needed quickly, with the right mix it is doable. Just watch the curing, the higher the psi the hotter it gets. |
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How much did the tower itself cost you? If this was directed to me - nothing. I was fortunate to get it as a tear-out from a commercial (government) site. They were happy to have me haul it off. It's good to have friends in the business. I only had to buy a new base section, as the old one was buried in concrete at the original location. I think it would have been $8K to $10K at that time to buy it new. Overall, I think I invested about $10K additional in concrete, permits, base section, antennas, grounding, crane rental and coax. The labor was all free (pizza & beer). |
| If you keep a check on here you can sometime find a tower cheap. I got one from a small town for $150, It is a 50 ft free standing 3 sections. Waiting for our house to be built before I put it up. |
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There's a member here that has used telephone poles (acquired cheaply from the power company) for his antennas... I've read where others have done the same. Don't require significant amounts of concrete, either. I'm that guy  Thanks gcw!
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_22/660236_Cull_Poles.html http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_22/664218__ARCHIVED_THREAD____Cull_Poles_v_2.html&page=1 |
| I had a long talk with a guy who has been installing HAM towers for 50 years. He does this for a living (excellent reviews on eham.net). He claims that guy wires don't need any insulators. They ran numerous tests and found no evidence that breaking guy wires into non-resonant lengths makes any difference. Any words of wisdom? |
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I've got access to several thousand feet of Rohn 25. Basically me and a buddy go around asking if companies would like to donate their no longer in use towers to the amateur/GMRS world, only catch is the stuff is still standing (not a big deal when you have a gin pole, climbing belt, rope, and a buddy or two). I have 7 sections of my own that I need to take down (still standing) and put up since I finally got permission from the land lord to go up 30ft in the back yard (use the other 40ft at my parents for a GMRS repeater).
Not too long ago I helped put up this 70 footer. Took two of us on the tower, 4 on the ground just to get the beam in place (the beam only weighs 90 lb). BTW, Rohn 25 weighs around 85lb a section. 
Here's one I put up a month or so ago in Brownfield, TX. Tower sections didn't fit together (a jack wasn't used to disassemble it before it was relocated). New tower should go up a section every 10 minutes minus guying when using a gin pole and when not fighting with wind. When fighting 60 mph gusts and tower sections that don't want to slide together, you might average a section an hour. 
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Not too long ago I helped put up this 70 footer. Took two of us on the tower, 4 on the ground just to get the beam in place (the beam only weighs 90 lb). A crane really helps.
My last job was a sweet 100-footer. The owner hired a crane for the 6M and HF beams. OMG it was like heaven! That crane operator was fucking awesome! He actually threaded the damned mast through the U-bolts so by the time I got to the top all I had to do was line it up and bolt it down. The second antenna came up backwards. Before I knew it he'd flipped it, weaved it through the elements of the HF and had it read for me. If every job had a crane I swear it would be like heaven on earth. I'm spoiled now. 
Swinging into position 
Bird's-eye view 
Be careful with towers that are secured to a house/building. I was on one and when we removed the guys I took a wild ride. The bolts to the house pulled right through the wood and I wobbled around for a bit. Crazy feeling. I thought the world was moving but it was just me. 
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