The nuts and bolts of building a ham radio tower
Tuesday night at about 5:45pm Dave (KIØQ) called and wondered if we could work on the tower. Dave said he could be at my QTH by 6:30pm. I figured that Dave could help me position the tower sections such that I could then take a day off of work and bolt the sections of the ANWireless HD-70 together (splices, cross pieces).
With sunset at about 7:20, that would leave about 50 minutes of running around the yard to get things lined up. I called in some reinforcements… my buddy Mike (KCØWKE) and my neighbor Chris to help move the sections around. The bottom section weighs 279 lbs so this was not a one-man job (at least if that one man was me).
Dave showed up and a friend of his (Jim) arrived along with Mike and Chris to help out. Before long, we were not only aligning sections, but we were bolting them together…. Out came the portable trouble light and bug spray. By 9pm we had bolted all 7 sections together including splices and cross pieces. We finished up just as a thunderstorm was blowing into the area.
These guys helped make everything go smoothly and I was sure thankful that they were there. At every section joint there are 12 splice plates with 4 (1/2″) bolts each. Each section joint also includes 3 cross pieces (2 bolts each)… that’s over 200 bolts!
Dave has now confirmed that a lift will be at the house at 9am on Saturday to put the tower into place! Between now and then I still need to get the Prosistel PST61D rotator mounted in place, attach the step bolts, the thrust bearing to the thrust bearing plate, and put the mast in place.