Thanks to all who responded to my questions.
As much as I would like to make something work on 160, many of the suggestions
would be hard to do. I guess even 80' is not high enough to make the dipole
work well. This tower is not like a Rohn 25 etc. It is a very heavy tower
made of 3 legs around 1.5" dia ea and the base is grounded and in poured
concrete. The width between legs is around 8' (a guess) at the ground and
about 3' at the top. This was part of a 120' free standing tower and the top
sections were not installed. There is a crossarm at the top about 5' wide
where the 2 fiberglass base antennas are mounted. I was going to have a pulley
attached to one side of this arm so my center insulator would be at least 2'
away from the tower. At the bottom of the tower is the metal building and
there is a 6' metal fence extending in 2 directions from the tower. 1 side of
the fence runs directly away from the tower about 200' and the other side runs
200' and makes a right turn for another 80'. Behind the tower and
away from the metal building there is a road that runs across the property
where big trucks drive and it is only about 20' behind the tower so no wires
can cross it unless they are over 14' at any point and nothing can be on the
ground.
The only other tower I have access to is a 193' Rohn 45 and it too is grounded
and guyed and the guys are not insulated from the tower. I don't think you can
shunt feed a guyed tower unless the guys are insulated.
I do know about am broadcast towers but I am not a climber and I have been told
workers are not allowed to climb a hot tower any longer. I did enjoy comments
about the old days where workers jumped onto the tower! Only broadcast work I
ever did was a fm station and that is a different animal completely. The only
time I got scared at the transmitter site was during a bad thunderstorm and I
got in my truck and drove to the edge of the pasture away from the tower until
the storm passed. I never saw a strike but I just would not stay in the small
wooden building where I could not get more than 5 feet away from the
transmitter (a 5kw Continental).
wb5oxq
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