TT:
I know I said I'd wait until I had the entire 64 feet up and inspected
but here goes anyway. I just today finished building the fourth section,
putting the tower so far at 32 feet - half way there. I daisy-chained the
three legs of each section on a rope and hauled each leg up the tower one at
a time, then bolted it into position. Then I descended to ground level and
tied half the cross braces (9) to the rope and hauled them up. I bolted
each brace into position loosely, then I checked for trueness (no twist) in
the section. Once I was satisfied, I tightened the bolts in that section.
Then I climbed down and rigged and hauled up the second half of the braces,
etc.
So far it's taken me about two hours per section to rig, haul and bolt
the steel into position by myself. I'm sure a second set of hands would cut
the time somewhat. From this point on I'm going to have to assemble the
sections from OUTSIDE the tower. The sections are getting too narrow for me
to stay inside while I bolt the braces into position.
The tower isn't very obvious from the street, even at 32 feet high.
It's located among a bunch of trees (deciduous and evergreen) that are about
forty feet tall. I think the next section of tower will just about peek
over the tree tops. The zinc plating, however, looks almost like shiny
aluminum. So I've decided to paint the tower - dark brown at the bottom and
light gray or bluish gray at the top - to cut down on the glare. (The tower
is only 25 feet from the property lines between my house and two
neighbors'.)
Grounding conductor (#2 tinned solid copper) and additional ground
clamps are on order, as is the 2 inch chrome-moly tubing, 22 feet long, for
the mast. I'll order the ground rods, Cadweld shots and coax cable
tomorrow. I won't add to the height of the tower until the ground system is
in place and connected. I expect to have the final inspection before the
end of the month. Then come the antennas.
73 de
Gene Smar AD3F
P.S. Local Cable TV company is rewiring the neighboorhood. Maybe I can
talk the crews into opening the ground wire and conduit trenches for me.
Would save me a bunch of time and aggravation. Stay tuned.
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