My first tower in decades went up in the summer of 1997. I've scanned a couple photos taken during the day of assembly. Since antenna experimentation is one of my favorite pastimes, I hope to get some more useful shots this year to present.

Here's a shot of the Rohn 25 foldover tower growing skyward, one section at a time. Assembly was assisted with a WB0W gin pole. The ground crew varied from three to four volunteers on a beautiful midwestern day. The fairly massive tilting boom is attached to the hinged section just below the climber.

Here's a top-down shot from near the apex of the 69 foot Rohn 25 foldover, illustrating the ground crew present that day. Note the blue knit tool bag, immensely useful while working, and perhaps more convenient than the usual tool belt.

The white line snaking around the picture is the main hauling rope, neatly spooling out of a large laundry basket up to the gin pole.

As you can see at the top of the photograph, my neighbor had an excellent corn crop in 1997!

Here's the beaming west view from about the 60 foot level of the tower. Until now, I've never owned any antennas that actually had a clear shot above surrounding trees, buildings and anything else!

The general flatness of the central Illinois farmland terrain is quite evident, and I must say that having a clear shot in most all directions does wonders for the performance of even simple antennas.

Here's the North directional view. East is similarly uncluttered. While that nice narrow tree grove heading outward invites a beverage antenna, I haven't convinced myself that a beverage favoring 0 degrees would be all that useful..

A dusk shot of the completed tower from the back porch, supporting a Cushcraft D40 rotary dipole for 40 through 10. Sidearms support an inverted V for 80/75, and help hold a sloping inverted L somewhat skyward for 160. This arrangement served me very well for the fall and winter 1997 operating season. While this will not be the primary antenna support for my QTH, it will be very useful for secondary antennas. The tilt over feature permits antenna swaps that can be completed in 15-20 minutes, making testing of experimental antennas easy. 3 inch diameter pvc electrical conduit is run underground from the shack cable entry and grounding plate to the tower base. Rotor cable and three LMR400UF cables extend approximately 90 feet underground to the tower. When tower #2 is planted, its cables will join a relay manifold to be located at the base of this unit.

This page last updated March 24, 1998.