BASE TOWER - who uses one?

[trx680]

Who has an antenna tower in their back yard?
After researching and considering mounting an antenna on my chimney...maybe its now the best idea, especially for grounding purposes.

So I thought about a small, 20-25ft tower just behind the house. I can ground the tower and the coax at the base. Bury the coax to the house.

Who here has a smaller tower? Got pics?

[nk14zp]

No pics and I have more than one tower up. I say get at least one.

[trx680]

Who has an antenna tower in their back yard?
After researching and considering mounting an antenna on my chimney...maybe its now the best idea, especially for grounding purposes.

So I thought about a small, 20-25ft tower just behind the house. I can ground the tower and the coax at the base. Bury the coax to the house.

Who here has a smaller tower? Got pics?

Let me reword this:
Can I JUST ground the tower and the coax at the base of the tower?
Will have just an antenna on the tower. No antenna motor. So coax is the only thing connecting the tower to the house.
Or will I have to tie the tower ground into the main ground at my meter?

[Blue Ox2]

I use a telescoping tower about 40' to put up my IMax2000.

It is strapped to the awning frame for my second story deck.

I drove the copper pipe into the ground at the base of the tower
and strapped my ground wire to that.

Hope this helps.

73,

Mike

[trx680]

I use a telescoping tower about 40' to put up my IMax2000.

It is strapped to the awning frame for my second story deck.

how do you have it grounded?

[jessejamesdallas]

40' Universal aluminum free standing tower (although I chose to add guy wires anyway)


Tilt base (you can see a ground wire coming off one leg of the tower, which then runs to 3 9' copper grounding rods which are spread out over 10+ feet away from the tower...the wire however has been replaced with one that's about as big around as your thumb now)


Drill stems next to tower with a boat winch used to lower tower.


Tower laid over when I was getting ready to put up the MaCo Shooting Star.

[Bluerunner]

I built a 40' tall 8' X 8' square tower out of 2 X 4s about 15 years ago. Had a 60' push up pole on top.
Ran a #10 copper ground wire to a 8' copper plated ground rod at the base. The 8'X8' deck on the top made it easy to play around with all my homemade antennas. The house is attached to one side and an out building on the other. Problem is that at the time the only treated lumber I could get was that YELLOW WOOD crap. It wasn't any good and I have some bad sections now so I am tearing it down. They don't even sell YELLOW WOOD anymore. Buildings too close to lay it down so I am tossing down one 2X4 at a time. Next time I'll build one 8X8 on the bottom and 4X4 at the top.
Gotta figure out a winch or an elevator. I'm getting too old for all the climbing anymore.

[jessejamesdallas]

I built a 40' tall 8' X 8' square tower out of 2 X 4s about 15 years ago. Had a 60' push up pole on top.
Ran a #10 copper ground wire to a 8' copper plated ground rod at the base. The 8'X8' deck on the top made it easy to play around with all my homemade antennas. The house is attached to one side and an out building on the other. Problem is that at the time the only treated lumber I could get was that YELLOW WOOD crap. It wasn't any good and I have some bad sections now so I am tearing it down. They don't even sell YELLOW WOOD anymore. Buildings too close to lay it down so I am tossing down one 2X4 at a time. Next time I'll build one 8X8 on the bottom and 4X4 at the top.
Gotta figure out a winch or an elevator. I'm getting too old for all the climbing anymore.

Can't say I've ever seen a 40' wooden tower...But I'm like you, "getting too old to be climbing", which is why when I decided to put up a tower, I wanted one I could either crank straight down, or lay-over.

[MDYoungblood]

A tower is nice but just like JJD said, "too old for climbing", I don't have the real estate for a fold over, that and the cost is a little high just for an omni antenna. You could search for a telescoping mast which is basically what I use, Rohn Co. calls them push up masts, comes with guy rings for support and would let you drop the antenna down to a reasonable level to work on it.

3's

Greg

[jessejamesdallas]

A tower is nice but just like JJD said, "too old for climbing", I don't have the real estate for a fold over, that and the cost is a little high just for an omni antenna. You could search for a telescoping mast which is basically what I use, Rohn Co. calls them push up masts, comes with guy rings for support and would let you drop the antenna down to a reasonable level to work on it.

3's

Greg

For a ground plane, that's the route I would go...I've priced 50' push-up poles anywhere from $150 to the low 200's...folded down they are only about 9' tall.