Rick Bullon wrote:
>
> With all the discussion about Rohn 25 and windloading etc. You have
> almost convinced me that trying to fold over my Rohn 25 tower not only
> isn't going to work but that the tower is only good for uhf vhf
> antennas!!!
> Well I guess the TH6 is going to stay in the barn for another 3 or 4
> years and I get to keep using my Butternut vertical for my only antenna.
> It is ashame too as I have 5 empty acres and all I can do is a lousy
> vertical makes me lose all incentive to upgrade
> Not flaming anyone just upset that I can't do anything better that
> what I have. It wouldn't be so bad if I lived on a small city lot
> 73
> Rick
> kc5ajx (tech plus forever)
Hi Rick,
Sri to hear of your discouragement. I know how these things can
get you down sometimes. I live on a medium-size suburban lot and have a
medium-size tower and a number of antennas that have been down and on
the
ground for close to 2 years now that I have never had the opportunity to
put up due to unfortunate unpleasantness with the neighborhood
"Architectural
Control Comittee." No restrictive covenants in the Deed Restrictions
that
prohibit towers or antennae and, in fact, several are already in place
in
our subdivision...I just made the mistake of asking "permission, rather
than
forgiveness" before putting mine up. So the heavy-duty
crank-up/tilt-over
and everything that goes with it sits idle on the ground while I a)
scrape
together more coins for a legal confrontation over this, b) sit around
and
mope and/or c) don't get mad...get even ;-).
What I did was get up as good a wire as I could as high as I could
...in my case that worked out to a 135' Windom up around 65 ft. or so.
That
piece of wire has been good enough to work enough to qualify for DXCC in
the
past year or so...it took me that long to get over being mad about not
being
able to put the tower and beams up and to take the time to study for and
upgrade to Extra. It really <has> been worth it to do so...a lot of
good DX
hangs out in that bottom 25kc of the CW bands. I've even been able to
get
active on 160M...a band I had never considered having room for a
"competitive"
antenna on (using a tuner) and have 47 states and 16 DXCC countries on
that
band just since my first ops there during the ARRL contest in December.
In the meantime...I've waited and worked towards putting up something
"better" antenna-wise, but haven't let that keep me from working DX or
trying
to be as active as I can in the contests. They say good things come to
those
who wait...it can be frustrating in the interim, but I've had the good
fortune
to be able to work some good DX to make the waiting more palatable with
what
I've been able to 'string-up' so far.
BTW...concerning the 25G...I consider myself to have been blessed to
come across some from a commercial installation that was being
dismanteled.
I plan on bracketing it to the second-story and running a set of
top-guys and
using it to support a Telrex tri-bander I have that <was> going to go on
the
crank-up. The Telrex is 100lbs and has a 26ft 4" dia. boom...kinda like
a TH-6 on
steroids. Don't let anyone tell you that 25G only supports vhf/uhf
arrays...if
you understand the limitations of this type of tower and what it <will>
and
<won't> do and plan your installation according to that, you'll be
fine. In
my case, that means some tower climbing rather than standing on the
ground and
winching, but at least it gets me on the air with a rotary gain antenna
on the
upper HF bands. If ur XYL has reservations about you climbing a
70-footer, you might
consider putting the TH-6 up at 40ft...you'll still work plenty of DX
and make
plenty of contest QSO's, it just might take an extra call or two...but
you'll
still be ahead of my wire (and a lot of other guys') in the pile-ups.
Above all...have fun (but be safe) and non illegitimi carborundum.
73 es gud DX, Gerald W5BA
cdent@tenet.edu
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