[TowerTalk] Time to Play - Tower UP !

[David Vondrasek]

After 6 months, lots of questions here ( thanks for the answers ) and a lot
of skinned up knuckles, I've finally finished ( somewhat) the 65 foot tower
setup.  The hazer was finally raised today to a height of 63 feet holding
an 18 foot mast and carried the stacked set of 2M12 yagi's up into the air
for the first time to look over the domain it is to have control over.
Winds were calm (1-2 mph) most of the day so it made the task easy as it
gave me time to reposition all the guy wires to allow the hazer free
travel. Still have to run the cables and lines better and do some final
tuning but it seems to be picking up and talking must better then expected.
Being in Grand Prairie, Texas (EM12) I can pick up the beacon now at 10
over S-9 with the beams pointed 30 degs to the north. Previous results were
2-3 S-units with a single 215WB at 30 feet. I'm finding the stacked 2M12s
have a much tighter pattern then the single yagi. I can move them 15-20
degs either way and the beacon go bye-bye.  As it sits and what to be
changed this week..

65 feet of Rohn 25G
Hazer resting at  63 feet.
18 foot 2" mast with HAM IV for aiming.
Stacked 2M12s with a 10.5' spacing vertical ( 19.5' booms)
Top yagi resting at  79'
Lower Yagi at  68.5'
17' lengths of LMR-400 feed from each Yagi to a 1/2 wave power divider (
All N-type )
15' of LMR -400 used for rotor turning feed into 1/2" Andrews Heliax  down
the tower
then feeds to Belden 9913 to the shack. ( way laying on the ground already)

Planned changes..
Shorten the 17' feeding from the yagis. I have about 5 feet looped now from
each
just before the power divider extra. 

Run 7/8" hardline down from the 15' feed line to the base of the tower and
remove the
1/2" line ( intended for another project, was handy today). 

Run 1/2" Andrews Heliax from the 7/8" hardline instead of the 9913 to the
shack (75' run)

Looks for a pre-amp, and finish building the 1KW amp ( HV need power supply )
 
So as the night passes I'm trolling 144.200 looking for contacts to test
the the beams.
If your not busy and wanna see if these work as I hopes aim down/up here
and give 
me a call and we'll see if it works.

Thanks again for all the answers to questions as I put this together.

Dave
N5ITO
EM12