Topband: AM broadcast tower and 160m dxpedition

[Ashton Lee]

I thought a bit more about this… while a beachfront/salt marsh location might be ideal for building an international broadcast facility, if you were building a station for domestic Haitian audiences you would probably prefer a high location reasonably far from the sea and its corrosive effects. Or perhaps you might design a tower primarily as a support structure and utilize easily replaceable vertical dipoles with coated wire as the radiators. Without extensive maintenance a tower might last a relatively short period of time and have conductivity issues.


On Mar 25, 2014, at 2:36 PM, Charlie Cunningham <charlie-cunningham at nc.rr.com> wrote:

> Good point!
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Topband [mailto:topband-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Ashton
> Lee
> Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2014 4:03 PM
> To: DALE LONG
> Cc: topband at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: Topband: AM broadcast tower and 160m dxpedition
> 
> I would be especially mindful of corrosion issues in tower planning in the
> Caribbean. There was a recent article in the Contest Journal on the ever
> difficult tower corrosion experienced at PJ2T.
> 
> 
> On Feb 25, 2014, at 1:17 PM, DALE LONG <dale.long at prodigy.net> wrote:
> 
>> Gentlemen:
>> 
>> I have been reluctant to ask for help which did not relate directly to
> our reflector. But today I got up my courage, so here goes.  I have been
> invited to lead a group of amateurs to help build an AM tower in Haiti.
>> 
>> 
>> Two things that may relate to some of our readers:
>> 
>> 1. I will be returning to Haiti in November to build a 240foot AM
> broadcast tower.  I know there are many AM broadcast engineers on this list
> and would like to have your advice.  Specifically we are searching for a
> large conical base insulator.  Sometimes when a tower rusts, they are
> disgarded or thrown on a pile somewhere.  We would like to buy one, and
> possibly a tower as well.
>> 
>> 2. In December of this year, I am organizing a small group to go to Haiti
> and participate in the 160m contest. (this of course is dependent on the
> tower being built.)
>> 
>> I am particularly pleased that amateurs have been invited to help.
> Sometimes broadcast engineers do not have the highest opinions of amateur
> installations.  So we do want to do it right.  We have a 9-acre parcel of
> land along the ocean and part of the area is a salt-water marsh. I think
> there hasnt been any serious 160m activity from Haiti for a number of years.
> This location would present a nice opportunity for a serious lowband
> operation.
>> 
>> If you have any information about base insulators/towers, or if you would
> like to join a 160m dxpedition to Haiti, please respond off the reflector to
> n3bna1 at gmail.com
>> 
>> Thanks for your time.
>> 
>> Dale - N3BNA
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