[TowerTalk] ballpark costs for a tower (installed)

[Bill Coleman]

On Aug 23, 2004, at 8:48 PM, Jim Lux wrote:

> What's a good ballpark number to use for the cost of buying and 
> installing a typical medium height tower (i.e. say, 50-75 ft, crankup, 
> etc) with a multiband 3 element beam.

That depends. How good of a scrounger are you?

> raw tower+mast+bracketry is going to set you back about $1500-3000 
> (don't forget you've got shipping, too)
> (+ another 1000 if you want a motor to raise and lower it)
> rotator at around $500-600
> antenna around $500-1000
> Cabling (rotator, controls, coax) $200
> Installation (digging the hole, buying the concrete, etc.) $500-2500
>  (probably towards the high end, unless labor is really cheap)
>
> Totals $3200 - 7300

Yeesh! I installed my tower and antenna for less than $1000.

Let's see, it broke down something like this:

4 sections plus top section & shelf = 5 x $30 (used) = $150.
2 HD25B brackets = $240. (new)
Ham-M rotator = $50 (broken) + $10 parts = $60
Hardware = $30. (new)
Rebar & Concrete = $150 (new)
Concrete mixer rental = $45
Labor = $0 (me!)
Mast = $0 (thank you K9AY!)
Tribander = $400 (purchased years before)
Cables / Coax = $110
Connectors, wx-proof boxes = $25
Permits = $45

Result - A3S at 15m, on a 44 feet of tower with nearly 6 feet of mast.

> I realize that one can greatly reduce many of these by clever 
> shopping, scrounging, doing the work yourself (or having a bunch of 
> friends come over for a tower raising party), but, then, you're 
> essentially trading time for money, so I wanted to figure what it 
> would cost if you just paid to have the work done.

But, but, but, doing all the work was fun! (well, digging the hole 
wasn't so fun....)

Heck, the re-build of the tribander probably cost me $1000, if I 
charged by the hour...

> I assumed a crankup, because I assumed that your local PRB-1 compliant 
> community will probably impose a "crank up only when in use" 
> requirement.  A fixed tower w/guys would be substantially cheaper, 
> purchase wise, but might cost just as much by the time you figure in 
> guys, anchors, additional installation time, etc.

Bracketed tower is a good compromise. All the advantages of guying 
without the expense and massive concrete footings of a crank-up.

> Likewise, regulatory compliance could set you back a substantial chunk 
> of change, depending on where you live (Thousand Oaks, CA had a $1000 
> antenna permit fee at one time, and may still do, plus the cost of 
> dealing with the hearing)

If you write an article saying that even a modest tower will cost $3-7 
large ones, there's a lot of would-be tower builders out there who may 
likely give up the hobby.

Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
             -- Wilbur Wright, 1901