Columbia Falls, Maine

    
             Future Tower Site                                                                                                         Three acres of blueberries on the hill!
 

Where to Put the Shack?

At the corner of the barn on the left is a nice shop space. It has a wood stove, and a wonderful view of the back yard, but not good for temperature and humidity control.

 
The Barn Shop

The barn and home are typical of what is called a New England Rambler. Very easy to visit the barn in the middle of winter without having to go outside. There was a privy in the barn years ago, but thank heaven, we got the upgrade. So the house is really several buildings; Main house, kitchen ell, large ell, and barn.

So, where to put the shack?

Well, we have some remodeling and building to do. The house is old - about 100 years. There is plenty of space that could be turned into more living space. The large ell on the first floor is a mudroom and the other half is a garage.

   
The Mudroom in the Large Ell. Soon to become a laundry/pantry.

Garage in the Large Ell. The wiring nightmare has been replaced with one new 200 amp panel in the mudroom!

Our plans are to make the garage into some kind of living space and add an enclosed porch to the back side. The upstairs attic space is to become a master bath, walk-in closet and bedroom. The shack eventually will be in the garage area along with a craft area: aka the sewing room.

 
Future master bedroom. The door leads to the second floor of the barn. Anyone need a used washing machine?

Early Antennas

The trusty/rusty old "C" band antenna has gone to the dump, but the mounting post and tilt-over support has become a handy instant tower support for 20 feet of TV mast (ah yes, salvaged from the Shiloh, NC recycling center) for a five element 6 meter yagi. With a pulley, I was able to set up the B&W End-fed Vee as an inverted vee up 20 feet. I was considering putting the tower in this back corner but it was not tall enough for the building bracket and this will eventually become our back porch area on the back side of the existing garage and mudroom. A nice place to sit in the summer.

The Tower Project

    
                              No, not Maine potatoes                                                1 inch threaded rod and large galvanized "L" brackets

Building brackets sure do make tower erection easier. I used two brackets to ease assembly and make climbing less wiggly. I built up the base and the first two sections, set the base near the hole and walked up the tower and plopped it in the hole. Once I got the U bolts holding the tower to the building bracket, I was able to climb the tower and set the Gin Pole for the next section. With the third section in place, I was able to get the top bracket secured to the tower, and plumbed. Then came five bags of Quickcrete into the base. The base section is four feet tall with three in the ground. The brackets are galvanized "L" brackets I salvaged; very heavy and beefy. The bottom bracket bolts are drilled through the second floor beam. The top bracket was drilled through the end rafter and the overhang box. Three sections to the peak, two more above for a total of fifty feet.

The tower is topped by a Diamond 2m/70cm vertical. Below that is  a vertical Cushcraft  2 meter yagi. Below that is the Mosley TA-33M WARC  for 20, 15, 17, 12, and 10 meters. Mounted on the top section is a 2 meter dipole for packet or APRS, and lastly, the Barker and Williamson End-fed Vee is mounted with the wire sloping into the back field to the resistor network to a ground rod. Also, bleeding off nasty interference to 2 meters is a wireless internet radio in a rectangular box. I build a shield out of hardware cloth to cut down on some noise. We tried lowering it on the tower, but the signal tanked. We hope and pray DSL is in our future.