May 30, 1998
Finally, after being licensed for nineteen years, I'm about to put up my first tower! Thanks to N1ML, I became the owner of a Heights Tower Co. 72' freestanding aluminum fold over tower, a Cushcraft A4S 4 element tribander, and a Hy-gain rotator. Here is what everything looked like after I got it home. This all fit in the back of my Ford Ranger!
June 12, 1998
Met with the Stonington Planning and Zoning board today, hope to have the building permit in hand late next week. I also ordered the hinged base from Heights Tower Systems today. Space for the tower installation has been cleared on the overgrown vacant area of the lot we own. Stay tuned...
June 29, 1998
The building permit was issued on 6/23 and I picked it up on 6/25.
I spoke with Drake at Heights Tower Systems this morning and he promises that the
base will be ready to ship by the end of this week. Recently relocating the business
has slowed things down. In the meantime, I've been keeping busy digging the hole for
the base. It's quite a production, as I hit water a couple of feet down. It requires
constant pumping and I still end up digging through about a foot of water. The soil is
clay and mixed with water it gets quite messy!
July 13, 1998
Finished digging the hole and putting in the forms for pouring the base today. Now to find some rebar to attach to the base legs which have been shipped and should be here any day. With a little luck, I'll pour the base next week. While it cures I plan to put in the ground system and build the antenna.
July 18, 1998
Today Bob, KB1LN and Bill, N1HRA came over and we placed the base and first section in the hole, braced it with planking, got it plumb, and guyed it in place. Monday I plan to have the building inspector give it a look, and by mid-week, the base should be poured.
July 21, 1998
Yesterday the building inspector gave his approval to pour the base, and this morning I poured it. I pumped out all the water I could before the driver arrived, but I still had about 4" of water in the bottom of the hole. The ready mix truck was here at 8:15 and by 9:00 he was done pouring. The driver was very helpful. We overflowed the form quite a bit to insure that all the remaining water was displaced. Then I got to shovel the "soup" from around the base and finish off the top. The shovel and I are getting to be good friends!
July 25, 1998
Thursday I broke up and carted away all of the cement that spilled over when we poured the base and removed the forms. I left the supporting timbers and temporary guys in place while the base continues to cure. I plan to let the base cure for three weeks. It will be ready on 8/11. Today I spread all of the dirt that was left from digging the hole around the base and graded it. I think I'm done with the shovel! I also drove the ground rods and connected the ground wires from the first section to the rods. I've contacted Cushcraft for some replacement parts for the beam. I've got a couple of weeks to build the beam, and finish prepping and painting the hinge. The hinge sits on top of the first section of tower and is operated by a threaded rod. This allows building the tower horizontally and then cranking it up to vertical. I also have to buy coax, rotor cable, and some other misc. items. Also pictured is the entrance panel for the shack which is on the 2nd floor.
August 13, 1998
Yesterday I built the beam. I replaced a couple of sections of aluminum, opened all the traps and shook out the bugs, and replaced all the trap caps. Today I added the 40m kit. I realized just after I took this photo that I managed to arrange the elements on the boom backwards. I got to remove them all, turn the boom and install them again. As I said before, ham radio sure is fun! I've painted and greased the hinge and all the misc. hardware that goes with it. On Sat., August 22, the guys from CTRI will be here to help put up the tower.
August 22, 1998
Today the CTRI gang came over helped put up the tower. Thanks to Bob KB1LN, Bill N1HRA, Dean N1SXL, Ray K1GOX, and Andy KA1VMG. They worked unbelievabley hard! The guys came over at 9:00 AM and stayed until late afternoon. In one day we put up the tower, antennas, ran all the cables, tested everything and took down my old R7! I owe these guys a great deal. The A4S with 40m add on at 75' works great and so does the 80m 1/2 sloper at 65'. I can work the entire 10, 15, and 20 meter bands and a good chunk of 40 with less than 2:1 SWR.
Oct. 25, 1998
The two things I've learned in building the tower are: (1) It was more work than I thought it would be, and (2) it's worth it! I've had a chance to play radio for a while now since putting up the tower, and the results are amazing! I've completed WAZ and the country count is climbing steadily... I'm in DX heaven!
Sept. 30, 1999
Here is a photo of the tower in the folded over position. This was done in preparation for Hurricane Floyd, which turned out to be a non-event here, thankfully! About a week later, I lowered the tower again and added a Cushcraft D3W WARC band dipole at the 60' level.
Sept. 1, 2001
Work completed today includes installing a 15' mast, moving the D3W to the top of the mast at 82', and installing new feedlines and rotor control cable.
Sept. 8, 2001
The photos at the top of the page are the tower as it appears today after installing a 2nd tribander, a Cushcraft A3S at 45' fixed on Europe. This should provide some additional flexibility in the upcoming contest season. Thanks to KB1LN, N1HRA, and AA1KM for making this possible.
Nov. 7, 2001
I guess you could say the antennas play OK, I scored 3.1M points in the CQWW SSB DX Contest, my best contest score yet! It was a good test of the system and I was satisfied with it. If I were to change anything, it would be to move the lower tribander to face South. Stay tuned...