You are reminding me of the time I flew my kite using magnet wire from a deflection yoke as the kite 'string'. I hooked the antenna of my Sony SW portable up to it and did some scanning, but I don't think it stayed up long enough for memorable reception to occur.....

I've TRIED to get the local Electric Co-Op to put me up a tall pole, but they steadfastly refuse to, on liability grounds... It's like there's a Force-Field Against Towers operatin' in this area...

Keep yer eye on CL, there have been several 40' towers for free around here for
those who would remove them. I bet same goes for flag poles.... Liability issues
and stuff like that..... Just be sure top of pole won't hit house in big storm on it's
way down..... :)

I have seen a few, and don't really see the point in putting up a tower right next to
yer house with an antenna on top, if it's just 10' or less taller than yer house.....?
Was it insurance issue...? And by next to I mean within 12 feet...

.

My house is brick, & my plan-whether I end up w/a Rohn, or a light pole-would be to FIRMLY attach either one I end up with, TO the house as added support. I'm German background, & I fully believe in "Over-Engineering" EVERYTHING...(grin)

As a fellow Deutschlander by blood, I share your approval of over-engineering things.


However, firmly affixing an antenna tower to a brick (masonry) building often times results in structural damage from the ever-present variations in wind-loading. (Strangely this contradicts the Three Little Pigs strategy.)

My personal learning experience with this was recommending the chimney-mounting of a large (15' or so.) VHF/UHF TV-RO unit on at a co-worker's parents house. Everything worked great for over a year, and then they started hearing weird noises at times. Essentially it had sheared off the top half of the chimney (between the two mount straps) and the only thing keeping it together was the weight and the mast. The noises they heard were essentially 400lbs of brick sliding back and forth by half an inch or so...


I felt really awful about them having to pay to have things repaired, since more or less I was the "engineer" who signed off on the design. :tears:


I'm positive there's perfectly solid ways to mount your skyhook to a masonry structure, but I'd seek advice from someone who works with brick and mortar for a living first. :thmbsp:

Yeah, you're prolly right... Most of MY engineering is by simple "Dead Reckoning"-If it LOOKS strong enuff, go ahead & DOUBLE it, then you KNOW it will be... Wonder if they have many Redneck Hillbillies in Der Fodderlundt ?!? (grin)

Working in home construction in Atlanta from the 90's to 2000, I discovered that
"brick houses" are really just brick faced, no strength, and often not really even
attached to the house. I watched several brick houses down there have their
face "fall off" within a few months - to a year or two after being completed....

They don't even use those zinc fold over tabs anymore.....
Don't tie anything to brick, unless it's like 70 years old....

.

My house was built soon after the war, I THINK its pretty solid... But that would be my luck, securing everything down all nice & ship-shape, only to have a stiff wind pull pole/tower, & the whole back wall apart.. We've had a NASTY winter, an "Ice-Dam" pretty much completely de-guttered the whole shootin' match, my sweet, loving Insurance guy told me I had a $2500 deductible, & his estimate to make it ALL right again was $2100... Now, I'll Kiss yr Rosy-red Arse at high noon on any given Saturday on the steps of my county courthouse if I could find a REPUTABLE outfit who would fix my roof damage for even 2X $2100, & furthermore, give you an HOUR to draw a crowd, before I Puckered Up...

Yeah new stuff is all some flavor of 'veneer over particle board (or card board)'...

I would not trust old masonry much more than new though. About 2 years ago there was one helluva wind storm here in Milwaukee, and two historic brick buildings had surprising masonry failures. One was IIRC 'The Historic Pabst Pub', and had the better part of the bricks on the 1 story tall section collapse, and has STILL not been repaired. The other building was an unused factory building along the river.....The better part of a three story multi-layer brick wall came down, and the owners of that and another similar structure next door (both of which were on the national historic register IIRC) had them both demolished.....Long story short unless it's built to withstand a nuke, always be suspicious of masonry.

I already miss the little green light next to our names when we are online.....
All this extra text is drivin me nuts !

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A good many are Rheinland-Palitinate-Black Forest Germans who emigrated to central PA, by the looks of things in the hills north and west of here.....we're cheap and like to keep old stuff working, thats why Moyer's still has our parts.

Sandy - A budget antenna mounting I've done uses 20 foot lengths of used 1"-1-1/4" galvanized steel well pipe along side the house, pushed 1-2 feet into the ground with stand-off y-brackets through-bolted into the attic space. Its just a pain to swap your antennas without a tower tho.:sigh: Dont be tempted to rely on threaded couplings that may come with the pipes, have a Farmer-neighbor to weld them together, they're happy to help in exchange for you getting thier antenna to work:D

BTW, my gutters came off as well and I sure don't expect my Insurance company to play ball either. Money only flows one-way with homeowner's policies - TO them.:mad:

Hey Sandy I see you're back on the other site. I was going to say something but the thread was thick with admirers. Here's something I did back in the early Nineties to put the TOTL Winegard UHF as high as possible without getting a tower. My background is German and Scotch (the Scot keeps the German from spending too much $$$).

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment...3&d=1427675237

The growing antenna mast is loosely secured at the peak bracket and has guys with a little slack. You "grow" the mast by putting a new section in the hole, then lifting up the mast and setting it on top of the new section. Once you're done with all the sections you fill the hole and secure the peak bracket and guys.

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You guys just don't KNOW what Tortures of the Damned I've been thru the last couple weeks w/no computer access...Well, I DID have my wife's Ipad, but it wouldn't let me post anything here or on AK-I could only read stuff.