Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandy G
I'm lustin' after a 40-60' tall Rohn triangular tower. Where I live in NE Tennessee, the lay of the land & mountain ranges, means I have an EFFECTIVE range from Roanoke, Virginia, to Atlanta, goin' the other way, North to south. East to west isn't QUITE as good, but I STILL can pull in Carolina stations like gangbusters, but going WEST, it pretty much dries up. My problem is that I can't find an outfit that will even TALK to me about begging, borrowing, stealing, or BUYING an antenna... YOU don't want that, & it costs WAY too much to ship an antenny to Heifer Junction.. I even have me a GIGANTIC Winegard to put atop of the putative Rohn, all I need is a rotatorator, a distribution amp, & I'll be all set. I have, lessee now, an ICOM R-7000, a Hallicrafters SX-62A, 2 Nems-Clarke Special Communication receivers that have KILLER FM BCB specs, & we won't even mention my Yamaha RX-V1, that CRIES OUT to be fed a decent FM signal..
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Here is a nutty idea for a cheap hill billy tenna tower. Do ya know anybody that you could talk into putting up a 20'-30' wood utility pole (or turning a convenient tree into a good approximation)? If so and you could source or splice together something like a 30'-40' length of 4X4 you could make a real handy tower by drilling a big hole in the top of the pole, and a similar one about 2/3 of the way down the 4x4. Join the two holes with a BIG freakin' nut and bolt to act as a hinge. Add a small (stop) board midway up the pole to prevent the tower from being able to hinge down in more than 1 direction (it should block the short end of the 4x4 from hinging past the post in one direction). Run a steel cable from the end of the 4x4 closest the hinge hole through the pulley to a winch at the bottom of the pole.
What you should have at the end is a 30-40' tower the top half of which hinges down to the bottom for easy antenna service, and for protection of the antenna in storms. You could substitute other materials also....Like if you could offer to dispose of a couple of 30-40' flag poles for someone (you'd need to enlist a welder and or a rather brawny drill for that). The top half only needs to be able to support it's own weight and the antenna, but the bottom half will need to be sturdier.
If you can get the materials, and help cheap enough it would probably be better than a tower for you, since instead of climbing it to fix issues you can make the top come to you. If you want I could draw you a picture to illustrate the idea better.