A status update for those of you that have been good to give me advice over
the last month as I planned my 30 Rohn 25 bracketed tower....
This past week, the lawyer that did closing on my house told me that his
reading of the CCRs on my house did not preclude me from putting the
antenna up. In addition, he pointed out that there is no organized home
owner's association to fight and numerous examples of CCR breaches in the
subdivision that would make singling me out unlikely. Good news.
On Friday, the town approved my zoning permit to put the tower up. No
building permit needed. More good news.
So work started on Saturday. I have finished the bracket support system in
my attic at this point. Unfortunately, my attic is very low (only about
30" of vertical room at the center!), making work in it a real pain! I
spent most of the weekend crawling on my hands and knees or working while
laying on my belly! Lets not even talk about the fiberglass itch I have!
I used the information in the August 96 QST article on installing a
bracketed tower as a guide. Due to the very limited space in my attic, I
could not use the "primary" method described in the article that installed
wooden beams from the wall behind the bracket to the joists in the middle
of the attic. Instead, I used a method similar to the article's
"secondary" method.
To support the bracket and distribute the stress loading of the bracket, I
nailed 4 20" wide by 6' long pieces of 3/4" plywood down to the joists at
the end of the house. The size of these pieces came from the width of the
opening to get into the attic. I would have preferred to have only 2
wider/longer pieces, but that was not to be! The plywood spans 4 joists,
counting the one against the end wall of the attic. On top of the plywood,
I lag-bolted a 6' long 2x8 to the studs of the exterior wall. This 2x8
spans 5 of the wall studs. On top of the plywood and in front of the 2x8,
I then attached a 3.5x3.5" piece of steel angle iron that is 4' long (and a
1/4" thick). The angle iron is lag-bolted to the plywood base. I also
added 2 1" wide x 4' long steel "wings" that are bolted to the bottom part
of the angle iron and are spread out on the plywood and lag bolted down to
the joists. The 6 holes for the bracket mounting bolts are centered in the
length of the angle iron. The bolts for the bracket will go through the
Rohn house bracket (HB25CG), the wall, the 2x8, and the angle iron. This
approach seems to be real solid.
The bracket is 15' above the ground. That will leave 15' of tower above
the bracket. That should be OK from the info I've reviewed in the Rohn
catalog....
The next step is to bolt two tower sections together and position them
vertically against the bracket so I can mark the location of the base hole.
Digging the 2' in diameter hole has got to be better than rolling around
in the fiberglass insulation in the attic!
Later,
Nat
N4EL
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