Towers

[Troubleshooter]

Whats going on guys... Well after all that digging, concrete and getting my zero five colassal flying 46 feet to the tip, instead of my maco 103c, I am now thinking of buying a tower, I should have done that in the beginning, I know.. It took me 6 months to figure it out, but the base of my antenna being only 26 feet off the ground, not the 36 feet that everyone talks about its been on my mind.. In order to put my colossal up another 10-15 feet higher I would need to guy it and I do not want guy wires everywhere, PIA for my landscapers as well.. Anyway, I would like to get a 30 foot tower and finally put a beam up that I have wanted to do from the beginning.. Not sure if I should go with a dual beam or a separate beam mounted horizontal and throw a ground plane on top..

The reason for this post is to find out if they make a low profile tower so it is not a sore thumb in the neighborhood.. This is what my setup looks like now, I know this picture was posted already in the maco 103c beam thread that I posted before this project.. I have seen towers that are just a little wider then this pole but taller of course.. Could anyone give me a heads up on what towers I should be looking at that are not super wide? Any help would be appreciated.. Thanks guys..

 

[undertaker]

Try palco electronics they have 30 self supporting towers. Great people to do business with.

 

[Troubleshooter]

They make lower profile tower? Like I said, I do not want a super wide tower being an eyesore on my property, so the skinnier tower the better..

 

[undertaker]

just go there web site palcoelectronics.com they have pictures hope this helps..

 

[Troubleshooter]

Definetly.. Will check them out... Thanks..

 

[undertaker]

They do look low profile

 

[fourstringburn]

How about making your own push up pole?

If you have a pipe supply dealer close by, use 6061 schedule 80 aluminium pipe which is strong and light. You can use galvanized but it's much heavier.

Use different diameters so it's telescoping and stronger than a single tall one. It's also easier to pull down if needed. Use 20 ft. pipes but don't extend then all the way so the bottom one supports the upper one.

Use a 3 inch for the base, then a 2 inch, then 1 1/4 or 1 inch and drill holes and bolt them together.

Attach the corresponding pipe to the eave at the top of the A frame of your house for added support like your pic shows and you should be good without guy wires. I did this years ago with my old Imax antenna.

This will give you a much smaller profile over a tower and cheaper. You probably won't get the poles much higher than 40 ft without guying, but all you need is 36ft for 1 wavelength above ground and you'll be good.

Just an option to consider.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Just watch the structural strength. If they are small "low profile" they may not handle what you want. Keep in mind too that width is a function of both strength and height. The higher the tower the wider it is at the base and the stronger it is the wider it will be. You also need something wide e ough to comfortably climb. Too narrow and there is no room for heavy booted feet and a rotator may not fit inside the tower. If you are going 30 feet you may as well go to 40 feet and get a nice decent tower.

 

[Troubleshooter]

I already did all that for my zerofive colossal that is flying right now.. I have 2 10 foot section of 2 " pipe, then if you look at the picture I made a sleeve out of 3" pipe to slip over the reducer coupler that goes from 2" to 1", the reducer was the weakest point so the sleeve protects it from snapping.. Welded nuts to the 3" pipe then slid the sleeve on over the 2" and 1" pipe, the reducer sits right in the middle of the sleeve, used bolts to secure it.. I have a 10 foot 1" pipe attached to the colossal... The 2" 10 foot pipe is buried 4 feet down in concrete, with the other 2" 10 foot plus the 1" 10 foot this puts the base of my antenna 26 feet from the ground. This is all in my maco 103c thread from 6 months ago... Here are some pics..

 

[fourstringburn]

You had the right idea but instead of using reducers, it's stronger and more supportive to slip the excess pipe length inside each lower section. Plus this makes it easy to telescope down if your need to work on your antenna.

For 36 ft, it needs to be 3 sections at 12ft each. You can cut off about 5 ft or so from each 20 ft section to lighten the overall weight.

 

[Troubleshooter]

The problem is the plumbing supply place that I used only had certain sizes.. The 2" they did not have to cut, they were in 10 foot sections.. The 1" comes 21 feet standard, so they had to cut that for me.. My buddy who does heating / cooling uses that place all the time so they did me a favor and cut the pipes and delivered them for free.. I made that 3" sleeve and its solid, that 2" to 1" reducer cannot break, it sits right in the middle underneath the sleeve and the sleeve overlaps the 2" on the bottom and 1" on the top, the bolts are secured so its not going anywhere.. I have to come up with a plan and see how much its going to cost to throw a tower up.. My friend was telling me some of the prices and its not cheap at all.. I might have to rethink this and just leave the setup I have up..

 

[338_MtRushmore]

I would ditch the 1" pipe and the reducer and the sleeve. Unscrew the top section of 2" and weld nuts on it like you did the sleeve. Then just get a 21' piece of 1 1/2" inside the 20' of 2 inch. Unless your 2" is schedule 80, then you would have to drop down to 1 1/4", but that would still have many times more strength than the 1".

Even if you had 4' of pipe in the ground you should still be able to get 36', and you could drop it down for service.

 

[fourstringburn]

One of your points I missed is you plan to put up a beam with a vertical on top. The pipe mast suggestions might be a bit insufficient for that kind of weight and wind loading without guying.

I would assume with a beam you would want a rotor too, and you should go all out.

I would start looking at towers like Blackcat 630 did on this forums Homepage pics.

What you have is good for now and the 10 ft. short of 1 wavelength isn't all that critical.

 

[338_MtRushmore]

I guess the biggest questions are what beam are you wanting to run, and are you willing to spend $1500+ to not have a guy wire tied to a post in your yard.

 

[Troubleshooter]

I was going to possibly buy a tower and install the beam with vertical on top.. The pipe setup would definetly be insufficient for the weight for sure.. I may not go that route now because of the money its going to cost to put up the tower.. When I first posted about my plan to put up another base antenna about 6-7 months ago a lot of people said my idea was not going to fly.. So I listened to them and did it another way... My initial plan was to start with a 3" pipe in the ground, then 2 1/2", then 2" then 1 1/2" into that, all overlapped 3-4 feet cross bolted.. So I am not sure now that I can raise my zerofive colossal another 10 feet like I want to.. Is it still possible? I have 2" pipe in the ground as seen in the pics with 11 bags of concrete, then I have another 2" threaded into that, then I have the house bracket.. So would the above suggestion still work? Basically take antenna down, take sleeve off, take reducer off, get rid of 1" mast.. Get a 1 1/2" or 1 1/4" 21 foot pipe, overlap it by 4 feet into the 2 " cross bolted, and my antenna will be up at the height I would like.. I want it higher also to get it further from away from my roof line..

Now here is my question.. Are those 2" pipes screwed together with the threads going to be strong enough? Because if I do the method as mentioned above, they will be the weakest link now, but the bracket on the house should help that issue as well as above it correct? I appreciate everyones help, this is a great community and I said it before, I am glad I joined..