[TowerTalk] New Towers

[Stu Browne]

Living out here in the middle of the Pacific tends to make one resourceful when it comes
to big ticket items like towers. One of the interesting things about living on an island
is that "once it gets here, it stays here". Five years ago I spotted a tubular 40'
Tri-Ex and got it for $150 from the non-ham owner who wanted it taken down. Last year I
was able to scrounge two 20 foot sections of heavy duty self-supporting tower. They were
laying in the parking garage where I work for years and I simply asked the manager if he
wanted to get rid of them. I hired a team of Tongan Islanders (big guys !) and we moved
them over to my QTH where I had already built a 4x4x6 concrete pad. We were able to get
one section upright next to my house. The other section, (very heavy) needed a lift. The
problem was my driveway is so steep I couldn't get a boom truck to get up it. I found a
crane company with a 4 wheel drive crane and the manager came over and told me it would
be about $2,000 to deliver the crane and lift my "free" 20' tower section. I was
stunned.  However, in conversation, he said that he had a motorized 70' crank-up tower
laying in his lot and had been trying to get rid of it for years. Highly intrigued, the
next day I went down to Kalihi (the "working" part of Honolulu) and low and behold
laying in the weeds was a Tri-Ex LM-470. Long story short...the  tower was mine for
$200, I rented a flat bed ($50) and (since the tower was in a crane yard) had it lifted
on to the truck for free, rented a friend and his back hoe for $200 and had a team of
friends to help unload. We had the tower on the pad and upright in one hour. I replaced
the old rusted raising cables with the tower in the upright position (First Call was
clue less and the cables came without instructions) with the aid of KH6ND and now a C4XL
sits atop it turned by a Yaesu rotor. The two 20' tower sections got moved out and await
a new home (remember nothing ever leaves the island). Keep your eyes and ears open, you
never know what you'll find in your neighborhood.

Aloha,
Stu -- WH6H



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