IMHO, the assumption of a crankup puts you in a well-above-average cost
bracket. The low-end costs you suggest for the tower and installation are
probably too low for a crankup. If you are trying to show the upper end of the
cost for a tower of a given height, I think you've made an excellent choice.
You should probably also show the example of a lower cost guyed or light duty
free-standing tower and make the point that many bucks can be saved if the ham
searches for good used hardware and does a lot of the work him/herself.
73,
Jim K1IR
>I'm writing a short article with some tradeoffs between various approaches to
building a station. What's a good ballpark number to use for the cost of buying
and installing a typical medium height tower (i.e. say, 50-75 ft, crankup, etc)
with a multiband 3 element beam. A quick check of the catalog from HRO and
various websites, for instance, shows numbers like:
raw tower+mast+bracketry is going to set you back about $1500-3000 (don't
forget you've got shipping, too)
(+ another 1000 if you want a motor to raise and lower it)
rotator at around $500-600
antenna around $500-1000
Cabling (rotator, controls, coax) $200
Installation (digging the hole, buying the concrete, etc.) $500-2500
(probably towards the high end, unless labor is really cheap)
Totals $3200 - 7300
I realize that one can greatly reduce many of these by clever shopping,
scrounging, doing the work yourself (or having a bunch of friends come over for
a tower raising party), but, then, you're essentially trading time for money,
so I wanted to figure what it would cost if you just paid to have the work
done.
I assumed a crankup, because I assumed that your local PRB-1 compliant
community will probably impose a "crank up only when in use" requirement. A
fixed tower w/guys would be substantially cheaper, purchase wise, but might
cost just as much by the time you figure in guys, anchors, additional
installation time, etc.
Likewise, regulatory compliance could set you back a substantial chunk of
change, depending on where you live (Thousand Oaks, CA had a $1000 antenna
permit fee at one time, and may still do, plus the cost of dealing with the
hearing)
Comments?
Jim, W6RMK
Jim Idelson K1IR
email k1ir at designet.com
web http://www.designet.com/k1ir
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