Antenna is UP

We finally have to tower project complete several months again (date of post), but it took me a while to get this post up.  The Mosley is awesome!  It went together easily and performs great!  I rarely need to turn the amp on with this antenna and am able to bust pile-ups.

Almost done!

Here it is on the tower.  N4ZVN Ed is on top getting the antenna secured to the mast.  Then we will do a rotor test to make sure everything turns correctly and enough slack in the coax.

Looking down the boom.

Stackin' Tower

Marc N4UFP

Marc working on section at 30'

We have the tower completely stacked! This is a big milestone in this project and I owe a lot of people a big thanks. So here's what went down... The month of February was pretty much a bust; we had a weeks worth of snow, my mom was in the hospital for 3 weeks and it was cold. As you may have read in the last post, I was able to assemble the Mosley PRO-67B and test it. I purchased a Rohn TB-3 thrust bearing, Times Microwave LMR-400 Ultra Flex and some heavy duty rotor cable which came from The Wireman . Last Saturday, I went down and got Buddy, N4BY's gin pole, ropes and belt and rigged the tower for Sunday. Marc, N4UFP and Morgan, KB4GFJ came over and we were able to get 3 sticks up in a total time of about 90 minutes. Marc was on the tower and its a lot of work on one person up there. I do have a work platform for the Rohn 45G that we used and was very helpful. Its a lot easier on your feet and back when you have something solid to stand on rather than the small rung. Last week I was in Quincy, IL for a training call at Harris Broadcast. Cool place and class...Needless to say, nothing got done during that week. 

N4ZVN & N4BY

However, this weekend Ed, N4ZVN and Buddy, N4BY came by along with Ed's son Christien and my neighbor David and we were able to get the remaining 2 sections up. Ed wanted to pull the top section up with the rotor and mast in place. I was able to get the bearing and rotor installed and tested out, but we ended up pulling the stainless mast up separate. I had a pulley at the bottom of the tower to allow us to pull back and away from the tower rather then be right below the section going up. This way is much safer and a little easier by having an two pulleys. We pulled right down the front side yard and each section went up with relative ease and right onto the lower section.

I'm starting to get excited

 

Many many thanks to N4UFP Marc, Morgan KB4GFJ, Ed N4ZVN and his son, N4BY and my neighbor David.  Without all of my great friends, This project would not be happening.  I am very great full for their help and support!  Thanks guys!

The next post will be when we install the antenna and I may have some great video footage of it if everything works out.

73, AE4VJ Brad

Mosley PRO-67 B Assembly

OK...so a lot has happened since the concrete. My mom was in the hospital for three weeks and had open heart surgery. She's much better now and doing well. The Mosley PRO-67 B arrived early in February (all 3 boxes) so between trips to the hospital and work, I started assembling the antenna in my spare time. I was able to get the boom together in my garage without much trouble. After than, I went to Lowes and got a 10' stick of galvanized pipe to drive in the ground so I could mount the boom to it and make assembling the elements easier. With the weather being pretty wet, it was easy to drive the pipe in with a heavy hammer. Most of the time was spent de-burring the screw holes on the element's outer sleeves, sanding the connection points the length that inserts into the outers and applying the anti-corrosive grease. Luckily, all the elements are pre-drilled and coded for which part of the bands you want to use. The only measurement you have to do is for the spacing. The boom is color coded (as are the elements) for which position, but to make sure the spacing is correct, a quick measurement is good. I would reckon all of this took a couple of weeks to complete, but I was only working a couple of hours a day on it and that included getting everything together, getting my mind back in that gear and putting everything away. The next thing to do was the assemble the phasing lines, build the choke and terminate the choke to the phasing lines. With the choke, its critical you get strip the exact amount of shield and dielectric of the coax. I used a razor blade to cut the outer jack and dielectric and used a "greenie" to fan the braid out. Then, use the supplied lugs, solider them to the shield and center and "tape the hound" out of it. I built my choke after attaching the feed line to the phasing lines. The choke is 10 turns at a 10" diameter, taping everything together at 3 or 4 places. Then, just attach the choke to the boom. After assembly, its time to test it out. I borrowed an Yeasu FT-897 (battery powered QRP rig) from Marc, N4UFP to make things a little easier. I was hearing things I hadn't heard before with great ease. I was able to turn the antenna and check F/B easily, but took a min or two to get it turned and walk back to the radio. I conducted some on air test with Marc as well and, on the ground, I am very pleased! I cannot wait to get it up!
 

Part II - Concrete

Ok so now we have the concrete in and everything is curing. I was a little worried that people were not going to make it right on time and the concrete guy was a bit early. However, he was very nice and I highly recommend Parkway Concrete located in York, SC. We didn't get any photos of the truck, but its quite a vehicle. They mix onsite so there is no waste and you only pay for what you use and no "hot" loads. On top of that, the washout was almost nil equaling to about a shovel full. I picked up the motorized buggy and flex-shaft vibrator from United Rental in Rock Hill around 10:30am, stopped by Starbucks and headed home to make sure I could drive the buggy without killing myself. It was pretty easy, but the soft ground and no load in the buggy made me worry some. The load sits right about the drive wheels and the motor and me were on the back. I did fill the buggy up with water and drive it around to make sure we would be OK. I only fell off once when i was going to get another load from the truck. I was going a bit too fast down hill and I hit a couple of bumps in the yard. No one got hurt and it was a pretty good laugh.

Ed and his son, Christen, was doing most of the hard work. I mentioned to Ed that I got the vibrator (insert joke here) and he wasn't convinced that it would be that much help. My Dad was watching him the first time he used it and Dad said it took him by surprise. Ed said, "It did!" After we were all done, Ed said, "I will never do another concrete project without a flex-shaft vibrator." It would move the concrete for him and it was amazing watching all of the air bubbles too.

Once we got started, we were done in about an hour. Total of 4 yards of 5000 psi Fiber re-enforced concrete. I spent about another 30-45 mins cleaning off the buggy and loading it back on the trailer. I cleaned up a bit and headed to dinner with KF4ARC and, while we were out, topped off the buggy's fuel tank. The next morning, I returned the rented equipment to United and the trailer to where it belongs and went to work. It feels good to have this part complete. I'm getting more excited each day to get this tower up. Now, the tower legs need to be cleaned up, the Pro 67B needs assembly and testing once it arrives (late Jan/early Feb), purchase transmission line (I'm thinking LMR400) and rotor cable and move the bearing from my 25G to the plate on the top of the 45G. It's not a lot, but the tower legs are going to be time consuming and help will be needed, but I think I've got that covered.

Continued thanks to Ed N4ZVN, his son Christen, Buddy N4BY, Ron WA4USC, Aaron KF4ARC and my Dad for all the help!

Tower footer

The footer is dug and boy was that an all day job.  From picking up the backhoe, the digging, doing something will all the dirt, getting the gravel into the hole, leveling the first couple of sections of Rohn 45G and securing them so they won't move around.  Let us not forget about the forms...that may have been the easiest job.  After all of that, the backhoe had to cleaned before returning to Home Depot.  I got up at 6am that day got home, after returning the hoe, at about 5:30pm.  The following day, KF4ARC and I went to Durham to meet a guy who bought my TH-6DX tri-bander.  It was a very busy weekend and just exhausting keeping everything moving.  There were plenty of people here to help and it was GREAT seeing everyone.  Some I hadn't seen in two years.  However, it was a lot of work, very cold and then the caffeine crash.  We got it done though...that's what we do.

I choose Home Depot to rent the equipment from because the other places wanted to charge for a trailer to haul the equipment.  I guess it ended up costing about the same, but HD's trailers have surge brakes on them and that is very handy when hauling a heavy load.  It was also very easy and no hassle.  The downside is HD does not reserve any of their equipment. 

So now the I have a 5'x5'x5' hole behind my house with about 6"-8" of wash stone in the bottom, forms around the hole, 1 1/2 sections of tower bolted to 2x4s and secured in the ground to keep the tower from moving.  All photos are available at www.qsl.net/ae4vj/tower.html.  Now, we are ready for concrete and I found, what seems to be, a great small local company that mixes on site.  I'll have more details on them after we pour and I get to know them a little. 

Special thanks so far to John (K4YS), Robbie Dale (KT4TF), Ed Helms (N4ZVN), Buddy (N4BY), Aaron (KF4ARC), my Mom, Dad, and Brittany.