Albums: WA7DUH And WB7CNV Tower Construction
WA7DUH And WB7CNV Tower Construction
Photo essay of tower project at the station of Linda WB7CNV and Steve WA7DUH. They live just outside of the Richland and West Richland city limits in Benton County. Project is to initially erect a 65 ft guyed tower, but to design it for 75 ft or higher. Benton County has an ordinance controlling "communications facilities" (BCC 11.65) which includes "communication towers and antennas." Many of the requirements are exempted for amateur radio towers and antennas not exceeding 65 ft.P1020688.JPG
Mast installed is 2 inch high strength galvanized steel about 8 feet long.
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The engineered specs call for #7 rebar (7/8"). Are we holding up a 2000 ft TV station antenna?
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It's 104 today, so sweat band and wet neck towell in use!
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Holes for guy station anchors are 6ft long,4 ft wide and 4 ft deep. Concrete blocks are used to hold the rebar cage up off the bottom 6 inches so they are embedded in concrete when poured. Painted lines indicate the level of concrete when poured.
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Steve is a slave driver. Time for lunch!
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Diagonal rebar wires are used to keep the grid square.
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A view of the trench heading down to the ham shack. That white bottle in the picture is copper anti-seize/anti-corrosion goop that is used liberally on ALL copper-to-copper connections.
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Distance between this driven element EHU and the element return fixture is critical. Houston, we have a problem. The driven element is centered on the mast, which means it will loop around the tower. This will cause great difficulty with the tower guy lines.
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Coax switching unit. All three active elements may be driven.
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Rubber boots hold the elements into the EHU sockets.
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Left To right: Gary W7TYQ (Yreka CA), Dave W7DJE (Florence, OR) and Steve WA7DUH install the rollers on the hazer. Gary and Dave drove up to help Steve & Linda put this antenna up on the tower.
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Lower painted line marks the height of the concrete.
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Steve WA7DUH; Peter's wife Tacy (on the end); Gary W7TYQ and Dave W7DJE trying to program a 2M handi-talkie; and Peter AC7SB.