Santa Cruz County is the most difficult permitting in the whole state
of California. Good luck.
On Sat, Jun 29, 2019 at 1:42 PM Ken Bauer via TowerTalk <
towertalk@contesting.com> wrote:
> I’ve been on again, off again in amateur radio, and for the past year have
> been on again with a vengeance! I am currently running a new Flex & Maestro
> at 100w to an EFHW-8010 at 100ft. I love CW and DX and may try my hand at
> contesting at some point. With this setup my noise is quite low, S1 - S2
> typically, I I can hear a lot more than can hear me. More power will come,
> but I would rather have more directionality first. I’ve never had a
> directional antenna before, nor a tower of any sort.
>
> I understand Santa Cruz Co. says that “Antenna Support Structures” must be
> below 50’. I have been eyeing a SteppIR DB-18E, although it might be tight
> in my clearing in the forest of about 50’ in diameter. I could get the
> smaller DB-11 that would fit more comfortably, although I hate to give up
> the gain on 40 & 30. Tree cover in the area of the clearing is 120’ pines
> (hmm, maybe mount on top of one of those?), coastal oaks at 40’, and
> youngish redwood trees on the uphill property boundary. To get my clearing
> I’ll have to trim back redwood branches, take out an 8” dia. madrone, and
> take out 2 or 3 fairly large pine branches. The site is up the side of a
> hill, 40’ elevation above the house, but another 40’ to the hill top on the
> neighbor’s property. Access is poor for anything larger than a bobcat or
> possibly a Deere tractor. Concrete will have to be pumped in.
>
> I am reading and enjoying “Up the Tower”, which clued me to this reflector
> - very useful book!
>
> Obviously I can benefit from all sorts of guidance. To stir the pot a bit
> here are some questions:
>
> 1. Is a crank up out of the question, given the location? Not sure how to
> get it up a sandy/loose dirt hillside. I hear some will not climb crank
> ups, afraid of guillotine effect... I don’t think I would have room to do a
> tilt over.
>
> 2. Guyed or unguyed? Is the primary consideration the cost difference?
> Looking at Rohn 65G 65SS050 as it says it can handle 29.3 sq ft antenna at
> 70mph & 19.7 sq ft ant at 80mph, 14.5 sq ft at 90mph. DB-18E is 12.1 sq ft.
> The antenna/tower location is on one side of a saddle point and winter
> winds come whipping in sometimes during storms. Once had a micro tornado or
> something that ripped the live top out of one of the coastal oaks and
> carried it 25’ leeward. Don’t know that any tower would hold up to that,
> top branch was 6 - 8” in diameter.
>
> Given the tight space, hauling the antenna straight up next to the tower
> without having to wig-wag or use a rather tight tram-line, not having guys
> seems an advantage.
>
> 3. Am going into the county offices on Tuesday on another matter, and
> thought perhaps I would begin investigating the Antenna Structure
> Permitting process. Advice? How prepared in advance should I be?
>
> 4. There’s a lot of additional safety equipment, tools, parts, etc. that
> goes along with this erection process. Am I better off finding a company to
> do this for me? I’m pretty handy, and also like climbing, I’ve done indoor
> rock climbing for many years - I just figured that improving / maintaining
> / fiddling with things would be non-stop once it was erected.
>
> 5. What am I likely overlooking?
>
> Thanks everyone for your insights,
> Ken WC6Y
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