[TowerTalk] AN tower

[David Gilbert]

Well, in my case, I had to allow for some ridiculous wind issues here at 
my QTH and I wanted to make sure that whatever tower I put up would 
handle any large antenna (or wind generator) I might one day decide to 
install on it, since I certainly was only going to have one tower ... 
ever.  I live on an easterly hillside near the south end of a mountain 
range where the dominant wind direction is from the southwest.  The 
winds that get blocked by the south end of the mountain range recover in 
the form of swirlers that roar down the hillside and across my lot like 
a freight train.  Spring thermals bring wind gusts every three to five 
minutes that often reach 70 to 80 mph, and I've seen days where 90 mph 
is not uncommon.  The strongest I've recorded was greater than 100 mph, 
and that on a clear day.

So I bought the strongest tower I could reasonably afford, although the 
Trylon might be the better value in terms of cost versus utility.  To 
each his own.

I do agree that the foundation seems to be overkill, though, and mine 
took 20 cubic yards of concrete.  That's roughly 40 tons worth planted 
six feet in the ground, and if the tower was five times stronger than it 
is now I bet it would still fail before the foundation budged.

The rebar cage design looked odd to me as well, but I didn't have any 
problem at all building it --- as the pictures on my web site show.

Shipping (from Pennsylvania at the time) was also expensive.  I bought 
mine in 2008 and the freight cost to southern Arizona was almost $1200, 
and it would probably be even more now.

No doubt about it ... my tower and antennas have far and away been the 
most expensive aspects of my ham radio addiction.

73,
Dave   AB7E




On 6/19/2015 10:29 AM, K7LXC--- via TowerTalk wrote:
> Howdy, TowerTalkians --
>   
>      I've installed dozens of towers at amateur and  commercial sites over
> the years and I have found the AN towers to be battleship  stout (which in
> many cases is not necessary for a ham installation) but  expensive to buy and
> install.
>   
>      One of my major complaints is that the base design  is WAY overbuilt
> compared to all the other towers I've installed. The last one  specified
> approximately 3 times the amount of concrete than for similar towers  from other
> manufacturers. To me it's a pure waste of time and money for the  unneeded
> additional concrete.
>   
>      Also the rebar cage is overly complicated in its  design. I've built
> many rebar cages but I had to hire a concrete contractor to  be able to build
> it per their spec. Even the concrete contractor was scratching  his head
> over the design.
>   
>      To me, this is another instance of an engineer  working in an air
> conditioned office who designs it but never has to be out in  the field to
> install one. (They're not the only manufacturer to do this.)
>   
>      For a similar tower height and capacity, anyone  installing a Trylon
> Titan tower would save up to $3000+ by buying it rather than  the AN. Just
> offering a money saving option.
>   
>      Yes, I sell Trylon towers but that's because I've  found them to be the
> best value in a self-supporting tower around and lots of  people are
> interested in that.
>   
> Cheers,
> Steve     K7LXC
> TOWER TECH -
> Professional tower services for amateurs
> Cell: 206-890-4188
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