Radio Tower Construction Project for 2022

Built a radio tower

It is 2022 and I decided that it was time to put up a tower to go along with all the other stuff in the back yard. Here is the shack with the antenna patch panel on the right.

Found someone that was selling 40 feet of 'Rohn' tower that ended up being AME-25 but that is okay. Didn't have to pay for shipping and the like new tower was about five hundred dollars with some extra stuff thrown in after I noted that Shelby Ohio is the home of Ameritower.

The overall plan

Grounding, Gin Pole, Water Jug counter weight, notes and calculations.

Dug a holeintheground

Put gravel in the bottom, set the 10 foot mid section, and installed some rebar.

6" forms around the top of the hole

Used guy wires for leveling and support.

Ready for the concrete truck

Concrete. Four feet by Four feet by Four feet of hole now filled with concrete.

Concrete cure time is about 28 days. I kept it wet for a week using old towels and plastic.


Ran some more cabling

Grounding work

Tower base Grounding work


About a month later, the Antenna install

Gin pole, guy wires, cables, and pipe

Guy wire grounding. The fence, the tower, the guys, and a big bunch of copper all cleaned up and double checked.

Rotator MOVs in the shack and at the base of the tower

Rotator Completed

Tower Base Completed

Grounding work

Grounding work at the base of the 10M beam. This completed the loop around the house and connected from the 10 meter mast to the new tower guy wire grounds.

Tower Completed

Tower

Rotator first test

Google street view

The google surveliance car drove by while I was working on the choke balun replacement.

Documents that I used in planning and construction

Property Layout from my original planning in 2011
Property Layout updated
Common Tower building mistatkes
Bill of materials
Tower Mid section drawing
Tower Top section drawing

Guy wire specs
Guy finder
Guy wire calculations
Guy wires calcs on graph paper
Various notes on guy wires
Wire rope cable clip specifications

Cushcraft D-40 Antenna. I referbished this after taking it down from a push up mast.
G-450ADC Rotator manual



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