Assembling the Tower
10/15
With my Father and Brother visiting, I drafted them to help me get the tower assembled on the ground.
10/19
I called The Wireman last week about some rotor cable. I have about a 250' run from the top of the tower to where the shack will be, so according to the HyGain manual, I need two #14's and 6 #16 conductors. The Wireman had some 'mistake' cable with eight #14's and a #10 they were offering for a very good price, so I ordered 300' just to make sure. The spool arrived today. Time to wire the rotor connector.
10/20
After some mix-ups with the shipping company, the mast arrived today.
10/24-25
I have two sets of 'pigtails' ready to be tied to the ground system - one tied directly to the rebar and the other from the tower legs themselves. Each pair is tied to a ground rod driven a couple of feet from each leg.I rented a trencher for the radials and ground rods. I dug six trenches, roughly 60 degrees apart 50' out from the tower base in a V shape from each leg. With ground rods 16' apart, that makes 21 total. I only got 15 put in, though. I'll have to get to the rest during the week.
To ground the coax shield at the base of the tower, I removed one of the cross-braces from the bottom section and drilled it for ICE grounding blocks. These are great - two blocks of aluminum that 'sandwhich' the coax shield. After attaching them to the cross-brace, I put it back on the tower base. 10/25I got the cable wired up for the rotor, and tested it out on the bench. It's all set to go out on the tower any time.
10/29
The last of the ground rods is in! All are wired together and the trenches are filled back in. After 21, I still don't think there is a good way to drive ground rods!
10/30
A while back I ordered a 2" bearing, but after getting the mast I found that the bearing didn't fit - the mast was a bit more than 2". I found a local bearing supplier and ordered a 55mm, which is a bit more than 2". It fits pretty well, though I had to shim it a little bit. More good news - the new bearing had the same mounting hole pattern as the other, so the holes I drilled in the tower's top plate still work. Luckily the supplier of the original bearing was happy to take it back.
10/31
Per Polyphaser's recommendations, I planned to ground all my feed lines at the base of the tower. For some time now I've used the aluminum ground blocks from I.C.E. I took one of the tower cross-members off and drilled it for several of these ground blocks. Now I'll be able mount the ground blocks to the cross-member with some NoAlox and have a good ground connection for the cables.
I also got the tower all ready for the crane in a week or so. It is on the ground with the rotor, mast, and bearing all installed. The bearing is sealed, but just to make sure I cut the end off a funnel and ran it down the mast. At least some of the water will be deflected.
11/8
Michael (a good friend of mine from work) came over in the afternoon to help me put together the C-31XR. (He’ll be a ham before you know it!) This thing is very well made – tons of rivets! We left it sitting on sawhorses in the yard near the tower.
