Tower #2 Rohn BX-48:
Tower #2 will be primarily FM
use, with small beams for each band, a dual band vertical on top, and maybe a
few other small things later on. It will not be the larger
install as tower #1 takes care of all the SSB operations quite nicely. As
this tower will be slightly taller and the top of the mast will actually clear
the top of the trees on my property wind and ice load will be more of a concern,
I'm going to keep its antenna load light. Tower #1 is actually quite
sheltered and doesn't suffer much from wind
and other conditions.
Yaesu G-800SA Rotor
Cushcraft 124WB
Cushcraft A449-6S
Jetstream JTB2 Dual Band 6/8db
DX Engineering Utility Enclosure
Jetstream JT40R
Lightning Arrestors (Coax Feed Protection)
ICE Radio Products Transient
Suppressor / RF Filter (Rotor Cable and Remote Coax Switch Cable Protection)
Homebrew Coax Switch, Look on the Hints & Tips page
for its construction!
Tower #2 is a used Rohn BX-48, though it was originally a BX-56. Section number seven was chopped off at the bottom, rather than rework it I decided to use section number seven as the concrete base instead of purchasing base stubs. Digging of the hole by hand, took a few days, and I even got a little help this time! Thanks to Dan ABØRE for his help in completing the last foot and a half, it wasn't easy digging this time either!
Before installation could start a large Maple tree which was in need of removal anyway had to come down, it took a few hours for a tree removal service using a bucket truck to remove this tree. The stump measures roughly 46 inches across!
Formed up about like last time.
And here it is, cured enough to clean everything up and get rid of the forms. Along with the other tower in the background. You can see there is a couple feet of the section seven above the level of the concrete, this should make it roughly 50ft tall once the tower is complete.
I also needed to install conduit underground from the house to the tower to carry all necessary cables. Here is the exit/entry to the backside of the house. It still needs some sealant around it where it meets the house, on the to-do list for a day without rain.
Conduit trenched in to the tower base.
Conduit exiting the ground at the tower base.
As of today, 9/13/08, everything but the top section is up in the air. Thanks to Rob NØTAW for braving a cold bug and a rainy/gloomy day. Just as he started to bolt the last section in place a clap of thunder was heard in the distance and it began to rain shortly after! What timing!!
Finishing the assembly of the cross boom and Yagi's. (Yep, that's me)
The top section going up!
And up! And there we have it.. Whew...
(Hmm, should I toss it back down?) And here it is bolted into
place!
Now it's time for the mast to go
up with the antenna's on it! We removed the thrust bearing from the tower
after the mast was aligned and centered into it, making for a four bolt install
on the top of the tower rather then trying to install and center it while off
the ground. Looks pretty cool hauling it up doesn't it?
Almost there, just a little
more!
And here it is, after I started
breathing again.. What you didn't get to see is him trying to spear it
into the hole on the top of the tower, made me worry a little bit as it was a
bit awkward looking!
And here it is, a little more tightening
and tweaking and that's all for today! Many THANKS to Rob NØTAW, tower man
extraordinaire.. (AKA Let-R-Lean Tower Services, Inc.)
Today I started with the rest of the
ground work to get this tower operational. First thing to do was get the
ground panel mounted and get the coax and rotor cable snaked out through the
conduit in the ground to the base of the tower. The blue rope exiting the
conduit with the cables was pulled through at the same time so I can pull
additional cables at a later date as needed. Getting the first few through
is not bad, but trying to snake additional cables when something else is already
in the way can be a major pain, best to leave a pull line for later!
Cables run into the grounding panel, to
the left is the ICE rotor/control line surge arrestor. To the right is a
Jetstream JT40R coaxial arrestor. All the cables are just wrapped up in
here for now, waiting on some connectors to finish it up. The tape on the
top right corner of the box is covering the hole where the cable grommet goes,
that's removed until I have the jumper cable from the arrestor to the coax
switch made.
Cables from the top dual band vertical
and the Yagi's run to the coax switch mounted to the tower.
The connections all made in the
grounding panel.
One last look from the street showing
both towers.
That's all for now! I might make
some additions to Tower #2 in the future, and if I do they will be shown here.
This site was last updated 01/25/10