So, long story short, this tower was put up for sale, for $450. 42 ft (12.8m) extended, crank-up, with the crank-up fixture, a 6-band hexbeam antenna, a rotator, and some coax for the heck of it. All less than 2 hours away. You best bet I took that deal.

So now I have a tower. Jesus christ I see why city projects are always over time and over budget.

Long story short: it'll be about $3,500 all told. Short story short: I want to have it up by 2026. So let's talk about the details.

The tower itself has three parts: two 22 ft (6.7m) sections, and a final 6ft (1.8m) topper. There's one winch to lean the thing up, and another to extend it (it's telescoping, one of those long sections fits into the other). We're currently giving it the Bubba treatment of a light sanding, Rust Reformer, and then some cold galvanizing spray.

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The goal is to have everything painted and prepped ASAP, just so it's not degrading sitting out in the elements. I have the rotator part stored inside, because from what I know, they can't evacuate water on their side, so I'm keeping it dry (we'll come back to it). I'll need to replace those winch cables, I'm looking into if I can use Mastrant or if I have to buy steel winch cable.

The antenna is a 6-band hexbeam (20, 17, 15, 12, 10, 6m), and the ropes on it are pretty gunked up. The coax is also destroyed, frayed and cracked. Luckily, Mastrant to the rescue, that stuff is like ambrosia except for towers, I swear. So once I can buy it (for, like $20), I'll restring that antenna. I'm also going to paint the fiberglass, partially for UV, but also just so I don't get any more fiberglass shards in my fingers.

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From what I know about my ground and the weight of that tower, I'll probably need like a 4x4x4 ft concrete pour. Now, getting down 6 inches is a task that requires half a day and a pickaxe so that isn't being done without power tools. Luckily, I know someone with a backhoe. That's also some like, 5-6 tons of concrete, which means I'm getting it from the local concrete supplier, not mixing it myself.

Going to buy some copper, and put a Ufer ground in that foundation once it's poured. Pound in two 10-ft (3m) grounding rods to bond to it, and those are the starting point for the ground system. The house ground is only ~10 ft away, and there's the entire backyard to run what will probably become two, 64 ft (19.5m) grounding radials, with 8-ft (2.4m) rods every 16 ft of run. Plug this into a PolyPhaser lightning arrestor setup, we'll be fine.

As for coax, I think I have enough LMR400 as it is. I'll have to replace everything with N connectors though.

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I can also source an old MFJ remote coax switcher that needs a little repair. Once I get that in, that can be mounted at the tower (as designed), and I'll be dangerous, mount that before the lightning arrestor, that way I only need one, not one-per-antenna. If it gets damaged I can rebuild it.

The rotator is absolutely ancient. 4-wire motor (only 3 have ever been used), 3-wire analog control box (it's a knob with a mechanical position switch, it rotates it's own internal gearing until it lines up with said knob.) I'm missing two screws, and it drags the knob when going clockwise, so I might have to take it apart and clean it. But I think the rotator is good, if, old.

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Future plans - Stick a 2m/70cm J-pole on there (I can source one from a friend if I make them a monoband one), a CB whip (if we can), and a 900 MHz antenna for some #meshtastic. I'm going to see about swapping my G5RV for a trapped 40m dipole design, to give me 40m and 80m. All that leaves is 30m and 60m, which I can get (I think) with just throwing enough wire over my trees to make a 60 meter (inverted) delta loop antenna. That's it. Maybe besides putting a weather station up there if there's even room, that's it.

As fas as in the shack goes, I'm looking into a coax isolation switch (to disconnect the radios when everything is powered down), and probably a low-power RF amplifier (like one that RM Italy sells that'll get 250W out, powered off DC) since it'll take extending the (unused) dryer circuit to get 240V to that room.

I'd love a proper ACOM amp or something but oh hell no that's nearly $5k alone.

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Okay so, just went out to the hardware store:

• ✅ Rebar
  • 10x 3/8" for the inside
  • 10x 1/2" for the corners and outer frame
  • ✅ Roll of tie wire
• ✅ 4 AWG copper grounding wire
  • 200ft roll
• ✅ 4x 2x4-5 boards for suspending the bolts
• ✅ 4x 2x6-5 boards for framing the concrete
• ⬜ 2x 5/8x10' copper-clad ground rod
• ⬜ White paint - mark dig zone
• ⬜ 2x terminal screws for the rotator control unit
• ✅ 6x 3/4x30" hot-dipped galvanized L-shape anchor bolts
• ⬜ Mastrant rope

My rebar choices were just because they only had 11 pieces of 1/2" rebar and I just couldn't be bothered - so a quick check with my tower consultant said it would be fine.

I'm holding out on the rope because I need to cross-check it against the (steel) winch cable. If I can not double my order cost just in shipping costs I'd like that.

Oh, right!

I got the (initial) funding put together. The foundation is going down before December. Basically as soon as my friend's backhoe gets out of the shop (that's 2 minutes from my house) we're driving it over and digging a hole, and the next day I'm calling in for some concrete.

That's why the sudden hardware store. Because I need to get the base of it prepped.

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