[TowerTalk] Aluminum Towers

[Gedas]

I have 3 Universal towers; one 50' and two 70'.  The 50' I have had up for 
30 years at two different QTH's and I purchased it 2nd hand.  Who knows how 
old it is.  The two 70' towers have been up for about 17 years here.  One 
70' uses 2x30" bottom sections and is for the X7 and rotatable 40m dipole, 
plus being an end support for wires.  The other 70' uses 3x30" sections and 
is for a pair of 17B2s at 85' and a 432 and 6m yagi, as well as an end 
support for wire antennas.  The 50' is just a little "scrapper tower" used 
to support a 40m collinear at 70' and x-mas lights during the winter, hi-hi.

We get CRAZY high winds here at times and being surrounded by flat corn 
fields in all directions seems to make that worse.  I would not own a 
different tower, absolutely love the Aluminum Universal sections.  I 
replaced all my hardware with the strongest SS I could find, and looking 
back at it, I think that was the best move I ever made.  I have not noticed 
the egging common to some.  I do not climb my towers anymore, but use to 
from time to time.  I won't bore you with the details of the tilt-over 
mechanisms I use here since you cannot tilt yours over.  If you like, I have 
some images in the ham section at the URL below.  Good luck.

73 Gedas, W8BYA
Gallery at http://gedas.cc

Light travels faster than sound..
This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.




----- Original Message ----- 
From: <john at kk9a.com>
To: <TOWERTALK at contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2012 8:56 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Aluminum Towers


>I had a 70' Universal Tower in IL and a 50' one in Aruba
> http://www.qrz.com/db/p40a .  In Aruba it held up very well to the 
> elements
> compared to my Rohn 55g  tower which severe corrosion and required a lot 
> of
> maintenance.  I replaced the factory zinc plated hardware with stainless
> steel and I never had any bolt problems or hole elongation.   I erected 
> the
> Universal tower at P40A using  a gin pole as I did not have room to walk 
> it
> up and installation was easy.  They do wiggle more than a steel tower and
> are not as strong so I would definitely purchase one of adequate size for
> your antenna.  Carefully look at their specifications and don't overload 
> the
> tower.
>
> John KK9A
>
>
>
>
> To:Tower Talk List <towertalk at contesting.com>
> Subject:[TowerTalk] Aluminum Towers
> From:Jerry Gardner <jerryw6uv at gmail.com>
> Date:Thu, 9 Aug 2012 11:24:19 -0700
> List-post:<towertalk at contesting.com">mailto:towertalk at contesting.com>
>
> I plan to install a 50' tower and a tri-bander for 20/15/10 and was
> originally considering a U.S. Towers 55' crank-up model. While researching
> towers, I came across a company called Universal Towers that sells 
> aluminum
> free-standing towers.
>
> Based on the specs, the Universal Towers HD-21-50 aluminum tower looks 
> like
> it might be a better fit for the following reasons:
>
>
>   - * At $1989 it's $2K cheaper than the U.S. Tower crank-up
>   - * It only weighs 190 pounds (spread over five 10' sections), versus
>   >800 for the crank-up, making it a lot easier to get off the truck with
>   fewer people
>   - * The base doesn't require a rebar cage, making installation simpler
>   - * It won't rust
>
>
> The HD-21-50 is rated at 21 sq.ft. at 110 MPH, while the U.S. Tower
> crank-up is rated at 30 sq.ft. at 50 MPH.
>
> The installation instructions for the aluminum tower says to assemble the
> tower on the ground, attach the antenna(s), and then walk it up. In my
> case, I don't have 50' of horizontal space to do this. Is it feasible to
> climb this type of tower and assemble it vertically section-by-section 
> with
> a gin pole? (Whatever I put up will be installed by a professional tower
> installer.)
>
> Any reason why I shouldn't consider this aluminum free-standing tower?
>
> - 73, Jerry
>
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