[TowerTalk] N6SJ Bionic Tower

[Steve Jones]

I never considered having a tree climber put up my antenna, I just did it myself.  We had a 140' Douglas fir about 20' outside the kitchen.  I bought a climbing belt (with the leg straps so it can’t ride up and suffocate you if you fall), put two safety ropes on it with snap rings, so I would always be tied off.  No free climbing for me!  I topped about 20' of the tree with a sharp limb saw.  Not interested in using a chain saw up a tree.
The top now at around 120' was about 10" in diameter.  I strapped a top section of Rohn 25 to the side of the tree top, using big perforated galvanized straps and aluminum angle stock.  I practiced with a small tree at ground level until I was happy with the attachment.  Once the tower top was on, about 1/2 of it above the cut off tree top, I installed a Yaesu G-1000 at the tower base, with a 10' mast sticking up through the 2" ID sleeve at the tower top.  I installed my Cubex quad on it, set up for 5 bands.  It worked great for almost 25 years until the tree died, probably due to our having built the house too close to the tree and taking out a huge chunk of its root system when we dug our foundation.  There were other suitable trees near the house, but by then I was near 60 and had had multiple revisions of my artificial shoulder.  So I didn’t think it wise to keep climbing.  My wife agreed!  I went to a UST HDX-589 crank-up with a poured concrete foundation.   But during its heyday I called that tree my Bionic Tower!  If some young whippersnapper wants details, I have diagrams and photos.
73,
Steve
N6SJ


-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk <towertalk-bounces at contesting.com> On Behalf Of Jim Brown
Sent: Wednesday, August 5, 2020 2:01 PM
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Galvenized Monopole Foundation

On 8/5/2020 1:34 PM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:
> One of the local hams here had a big (~100+ ft) tree "topped" and had 
> a tower section installed as you described, so he could put up a 
> rotatable Yagi.  He would tell us about all the hassles of training 
> lumberjacks to do installation and maintenance.
> I guess a crane couldn't get in to the forest.

Right. That's NI6T, well known DXer and contester. Years ago when I was considering that idea, he talked me out of it for the reasons noted. 
Think of it this way -- if you hire someone to climb a tower, it's very likely that he knows what to do when he gets up there. Tree climbers are clueless, and in my experience, not teachable.

73, Jim K9YC
_______________________________________________



_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk at contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk