I just noticed that I’ve never posted a picture of the completed tower. Here it is.
Blog
Where the heck is W0HC?
Sometimes life gets in the way of Ham Radio. Such has been the case at the W0HC QTH. In the past month I've mostly finished the tower. Just some minor odds and ends to tie up before the snow flies. The grounding panel is built, the Polyphasers are installed. Coax is run. The tree is… Continue reading Where the heck is W0HC?
Mostly Done
The tower is now mostly done. The HF antenna is up, as are the 2m and 70cm yagis. The rotor is installed, and rotates. Mostly. There’s a tree in the way of the HF beam, so it can’t rotate. I have a guy with a boom truck coming to fix that little issue. I still… Continue reading Mostly Done
Tower Grounding
Here's a brief summary of the grounding on my tower as it stands today. It's not perfect, it's not even ideal. It's a major compromise. I ran a 2" copper strap from one tower leg to a ground rod about 20' away. The strap is buried underground, but only about 4 inches deep. The reason… Continue reading Tower Grounding
Stacking Tower
I'm way behind on updating here.. The tower itself is up. I home brewed my ginpole using an actual gin pole head I bought on ebay. I added a 10 foot section of 1" galvanized pipe. I didn't buy any brackets, so I used u-bolts to attach it to the tower. Not recommended. And I… Continue reading Stacking Tower
Tower Construction – Part 3
Just a few more updates. The Cedar Rapids Hamfest is Sunday. I will be on the lookout for a nice 2m Yagi to use on SSB. Tomorrow I will be working on tower grounding.
Tower Construction – Part 2
Some photos this time around. To build a tower you have to dig a hole. A pretty good sized one. In my case a minimum of 30" square and 48 inches deep. No problem. In normal soil. I don't live on "normal soil". Our neighborhood is notorious for limestone. Even the electric utility had issues… Continue reading Tower Construction – Part 2
Holy Cow, the site has been given an extreme makeover!
W0HC.com 2.0 I was never really happy with the original site, and I decided that the "Holy Cow" theme would be fun, so I made a few changes. I think I like it here much better now.
The Shack
I just realized that there are no pictures of the shack on the site. The shack is very small. We don’t have much usable space in the basement, so it was a challenge to set up an area for radios. It was decided to carve out an area just over 6′ by 6′ in one… Continue reading The Shack
Tower Construction – Part 1
Here is the latest on the new tower. So far I have acquired: 40' of Rohn 25 tower The concrete base plate A Rohn heavy duty house bracket (which needed some modifications) galvanized concrete anchor bolts new Rohn hot-dipped galvanized leg bolts And so the digging of the foundation has begun. And it's been an… Continue reading Tower Construction – Part 1