I can remember back in the 60's visiting a guy down in the Boston area who
had built a self-supporting 100 foot wooden tower with an "inside" stairway
and platform at the top with railing and room for two chairs, a six pack and
a bag of potatoe chips! I can't remember how many gallons of paint an hours
he said it took to paint it, but it sure was a great view of Boston harbor
and a great antenna platform.
Gene / W2LU
----- Original Message -----
From: "John E. Cleeve" <g3jvc@jcleeve.idps.co.uk>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 23, 2010 9:25 PM
Subject: [TowerTalk] "Roll your own" tower/mast.
> Gentlemen,
>
> I would be grateful for constructive comment on the following problem. I
> am
> in the market for a couple of 100ft towers or masts, the problem is that
> in
> the UK there are very few manufacturers or suppliers, and those that can
> supply new, usually import their wares from abroad. However, one quotation
> I
> received from a UK manufacturer was for approximately 12000 GBP per mast
> (guyed), at the factory gate, carriage, guy anchorages and erection of the
> masts being in addition. I look with envy at the availability of towers
> and
> masts in the USA. But importing a tower/mast into the UK would mean
> additional value added tax being added to the price, plus the cost of
> carriage and insurance imposed at the port of entry. Supplies of ex
> commercial or military towers/masts appear to have "dried up" as the scrap
> metal men scavenge every kind of metal, so that it can be sent to China!
>
>
>
> Looking back through my old copies of the ARRL Handbook, a few suggestions
> were offered, such as using redundant Sears windmill towers, or building
> an
> "A" frame support, or even a wooden lattice tower, and so I am thinking of
> doing something similar. As many boys did 70 years ago, I grew up playing
> with a "Meccano" metal strip construction set, and it occurs to me, that
> if
> one used structural grade aluminium, and high tensile bolts, then it would
> not be beyond the realms of possibility to set up an assembly facility in
> the back yard, jig drill the bolt holes in the aluminium, for
> repeatability
> and accuracy, and assemble four sided, 25 foot mast sections, as though
> one
> were using a "grown up" Meccano set.
>
>
>
> I know that the current metal prices may seem very high, but the price of
> buying the metal and assembling ones own tower/mast may be considerably
> less
> than obtaining one from the USA or even Japan. I would be tempted to
> "copy"
> the mechanical design and dimensions of my existing sixty foot lattice
> tower, which was made in the UK and I paid around 150 GBP for it back in
> 1979. Sadly Strumech are no longer manufacturing for the amateur radio
> market, but the last of their production of the sixty foot tower, was
> priced
> at around 5000 GBP. My Strumech P60 is of triangular section, with tubular
> steel vertical sections and solid steel rods forming the lattice, the
> junctions with the vertical members being welded, the entire assembly then
> being hot galvanised.
>
>
>
> Possible sources of tower/mast designs or design information would be very
> useful, and I look forward to the groups response in due course,
> sincerely,
> John G3JVC.
>
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>
>
>
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