Hello to everyone....with the help of a ham friend, we purchased two of
the TV News vans with the 48ft Wil-Burt masts. We took one of them to
the ill-fated DL88 DXpedition last year. Pictures are on the Grid
Bandits web site. The ones that we got have 6KW Onan generators in
them....although they are wired for 120VAC only. There are 2 very nice
19" rack panels where you can mount your gear.
As someone mentioned, the vans were pretty well run out with mileages of
250K and 280K. It took about $2500 to fix them up into decent shape and
to put some tires on one of them. The mast seals are a bit leaky, but
the masts do work. We are fixing one of them up as a rover. It should
be a real cool rover for 6M thru 3456MHz. The other one we will
probably use for DXpeditions.
For anyone interested in a really great rover or a DXpedition vehicle,
these are really a great way to go. Of course, you may find one that is
complete junk, but you could always offer them $150 and just take out
the Wil-Burt mast and junk the rest. You will still be WAY ahead....
I would say that if you are interested in this approach, you should look
far and wide. Send letters to the larger TV stations within about
300miles of you. Tell them to keep your letter in case a van should be
"declared surplus"....
73 Marshall K5QE
On 7/24/2011 5:46 PM, Jerry wrote:
> I have seen pictures of these 'News Vans' with the large towers on the
> back which would be Great for /P Op's.. ! Our Local News Stations run
> around with small SUV's painted all up for the TV News.. the Camera Man
> is driving..and a Young Sweet Heart of a Reporter is his passenger..!
> We ain't got no Big Towers on ours ! lol
> Jerry
> VE6CPP VE6Jee/p
> DN39or
>
> On 7/23/2011 10:07 PM, Mike (KA5CVH) Urich wrote:
>> On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 6:25 PM, K8TB<k8tb@bosscher.org> wrote:
>>
>>> I seriously would drop a letter every TV station with a news
>>> department for 150 miles around you. They run the daylights out of their
>>> ENG vans, and the vans get nothing for trade. Sometimes they will move
>>> the pneumatic mast to a new vehicle, many times they do not. Might be
>>> worth the look see.
>> Mike wrote
>>
>> One of our local guys is in tight with most of the media and picked up
>> a used ENG van with ~48 Will-Burt pneumatic tower pretty reasonable.
>> Like you said the van is pretty worn out and the seals on the mast
>> leak but nothing he can't put up with.
>>
>> I priced a brand new Will-Burt 60' @ ~$11,000 a couple of years ago.
>> I also recently stumbled across these folks but I haven't gotten any
>> prices. http://floatograph.com/telescoping-masts/index.php
>>
>> Also check out N1UZ's tower. You can google him and get the article.
>> I just stole his pictures and now have a tower just like it ready to
>> be restored and put on a trailer this fall.
>> http://ka5cvh.com/p/radio_pics_all/radio_n1uz_trailer_tower/
>>
>>
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