[TowerTalk] My overall tower experience, from catalog/web search to delivery of tower....

[Roger White]

To those that are interested, I started my tower search last year at this 
time and from the info gleaned off this forum, I used it to research, 
purchase and assemble the necessary information to make my experience go 
rather smoothly and mostly trouble free. Here is how it went with me.



  1.. Talked with Gerald (K5GW) of Texas Towers (TT) about crank-up towers, 
got important info on what my options were, etc.. Sept. 2007
  2.. Called the tower manufacturer and had a number of interchanges (both 
phone and e-mail) about what my requirements ere and what I would need to 
successfully put up the tower. Phone conversations are important over e-mail 
to convey details you can't get over the e-mail.mid  Sept. 2007
  3.. Received the necessary info I needed to make my selection and get the 
material ready to submit a building permit application. .. late Sept. 2007 / 
was ongoing
  4.. Ordered the tower and accessories from TT.was told base would arrive 
in 2 weeks and tower by Dec. 12.Oct.3, 2007
  5.. Submitted building permit Oct. 5
  6.. Base received week of Oct. 15
  7.. Got tired of waiting for permit to be issued, so continued with risk 
until permit eeked out Oct. 22
  8.. Gathered other materials needed, wood for forms, nails, rebar wire 
twister, other extraneous stuff I did not know I needed.
  9.. Rented Mini Excavator for the weekend.dug hole.Oct 24 to Oct 26, 2007
  10.. Ordered grade 60 rebar to be bent to manufacturers spec.received Oct. 
29, 2007
  11.. Rebar assembled in hole, scheduled inspection prior to concrete 
pour.Oct. 30
  12.. Concrete pour of > 9 yards of concrete.Nov. 6
  13.. While twiddling my thumbs waiting for the 6 week cure time for the 
base to complete and for the tower to ship, a phone call came from the tower 
manufacturer on Nov. 14 and they said ."the tower would be on the truck that 
afternoon and here is the trucker's cell phone number." Yikes, I have not 
even thought about how I would pick the tower off the trailer.. A quick 
phone call to my son and he scheduled to go get a BobCat for the next 
day....Nov. 14
  14.. At 8 AM the next day, the trucker called me and said he was crossing 
the TX/OKLA border and would be at my house by mid morning. Things were 
quickly coming to a head, so to speak.
  15.. At 10 AM, he says he is turning off the Interstate and headed east to 
my house. ETA 20 minutes. We are ready, barely.
  16.. He arrives promptly, one of those super long flat bed trailers pulled 
by a pretty large truck, actually very large truck. Using the fork lift, we 
easily pick up the tower, all 888 lbs of it, and gently set it on the ground 
next to the road. I live on a corner lot and have easy access up to the 
tower base. I sign the Bill of lading and the tower is ours. We set it next 
to the base and the rest is history.
BTW, the tower is a HDX-555 from US Towers and presently has a CL-33 up on 
it and soon to have a 12/17 meter yagi up there also. This is my first crank 
up tower, as previously I have had a self supporting tower and a tilt over 
Rohn tower. This tower is indeed well built and constructed.


Roger W5RDW

Murphy, Texas