Greetings tower gurus !
I was recently given ( yes, free ) a tower by my neighbor.
He doesn't know what it is because it was attached to his house already when
he moved in.
We both SUSPECT it is of Radio Shack origin and designed for TV ( no
antennas mounted ).
--- pause to let the laughing and pointing stop ---
It is triangular and is comprised of four 10 foot sections.
The material appears to be galvanized tubular steel and it measures 10.5" or
so across the face and weighs about 25 lbs per 10 ' section.
Before you start yelling at me, I do not plan to mount any HF antennas on
it, VHF / UHF only.
HF duties will continue to be carried out by my G5RV and inverted V wires.
I only plan on using 3 of 4 sections because I only have room for 30 feet or
so of tower to fall and still be in my yard.
I don't want to climb this tower, the "rungs" are tack-welded 'U" channel
and I am also lazy.
I'd like to make this a tilt-over tower.
The antennas I plan to mount are a Cushcraft 5 element 6M beam ( 2.6 sq. ft.
wind area ) and a 13 element 2M beam ( .4 sq ft. ).
The tower was attached to the neighbor's house with ( shudder ) home made
brackets and the base was secured to 2 building blocks buried in the dirt.
I'd rather not dig and pour concrete so I'm considering a metal plate
secured to the ground with long rods driven in and heavy brackets to the
foundation.
I'd also like to find / build a hinging base, the current base is just a
flat plate.
The galvanizing is also failing on some tubes ( 1/3 of them ) but it appears
to be only surface rust - I'd like to paint the tower.
I'd also like to avoid a lot of guy wires and make this mostly
self-supporting via heavy brackets to the house.
Are there any words of advice please, amidst the jeers ?
Thanks a lot, 73....dave / VE7SGI.
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