[TowerTalk] Need help buying first tower

[Ross Tucker]

Hello all!

I have been offered a position at my high school to teach ham radio as a
class. The administration also said that they would be willing to have a
tower installed! The one problem is that I have zero experience with real
towers. I was wondering if one or more of you might be willing to
correspond with me to walk me through the whole process.

To be honest, I don't even know what I need. The absolute #1 constraint is
that it must be over-engineered for safety - if anything falls and damages
school property during monsoon season, I will be extremely fired. XD
Low-maintenance is also important, as I'm a busy teacher with a small child
at home. Height needs to be at least 20 or 30' to get above the nearby
buildings. Self-supporting (no guy wires) is also necessary. As for
antennas, since the station will only be operated during school hours, I
was thinking of just a mono-band 20 m beam for HF and a 2m/70cm vertical
for local repeaters. Finally, in the future, I'd like to install a
satellite array on a shorter mast, nearby.

Would anybody be willing to mentor me through this process?

Thank you for your time-
Ross Tucker, PhD, NS7F
Arizona State University / Herberger Young Scholars Academy