[TowerTalk] ballpark costs for a tower (installed)

[Jim Lux <jimlux@earthlink.net>]

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

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