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 uphill battle due to the property being situated on top of solid limestone.
The foundation will be approx 30 inches square, and four to five feet deep, depending on how hard it is to dig the rock once I hit the 4 foot level. You can see behind me next to the house some of the big chunks of rock that I've broken up and pulled out of the hole. Good times. Most of the rock is breaking into baseball sized pieces. There was about six inches of top soil over the rock. This may explain why my lawn dries out so quickly in the summer.
This past weekend I visited KA0ZOZ and acquired a used Cushcraft A3 tri-band beam, a Yaesu G-800SA rotor with 60+ feet of rotor cable, and a Kenwood TS-711A 2m all-mode radio. This has me even more fired up to get the hole dug! I still need to find a 2m yagi to use for SSB, and a bunch of coax. I'm thinking the Cedar Rapids Hamfest next month will be a good place to look.
I have a feeling the worst may be yet to come. I need to find a way to drive a few more ground rods, and trench in some wire between them and the single point ground bus bar at the coax entrance. I also plan to utilize a 'ufer' ground by having the rebar welded into a cage and bonding it to the tower legs.
Thanks, Josh, for the invite. Although I don’t know a thing (other than digging a hole, I’ve done that plenty of times in my life) about what you are talking about, I will sitll read and learn.
Build away, dude.
Cool good luck in finding an antenna.
ke7fyn – you really need to find a cheap 10m rig. It’s a blast when it opens up in the evenings. They can be had for under $100, and you can get a cheap CB antenna at Radio Shack for $30 or $40 and trim a couple inches off and be on the air.
yah I should. I really need to test for my general or extra class. I could probably study for a day or two and have my general.
I actually thought the General was harder than the Extra.
I took the general the same night as my technicians. I was one question away from passing. That was about 4 years ago, so it would probably take some work now.