| The tower site is located at the edge
of a small orchard in our easterly side yard about 90
feet from the house. The path to the shack is 230 feet
away, across the lawn, under the driveway and through
the front yard. I had put conduit under the driveway
when it was resurfaced several years ago, just in
case. HI.
The last "fruit tree" in the first row
after the dwarf peach will be a Rohn 25G hybrid with
multiple wire grafts. The flags in the foreground
are courtesy of DigSafe since our utilities are all underground.
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September 26, 1998
The base for a 50 foot Rohn 25G tower is not very wide, i.e., not much
room for a shovel (or me). Don't let the grass fool
you. Glacial till lurks just below the surface.
Fortunately, we never hit any boulders.
After digging down 2 feet from above I
enlisted my XYL, Sheila, to
finish the job with a garden spade. By the time she
was done, the base was 5 feet deep. Eat your hearts
out guys !
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September 28, 1998
Here's my friend Ric, KV1W, with his
shovel. Ric is my tower elmer. He provided technical
advice and much help for almost every aspect of this
project. Thanks Ric !
BTW, look for KV1W (M/M) in
CQWW and ARRL DX contests. Just listen for the rock
crushing signals from Berlin, MA. Ric has a Rohn 25G
tower with a 40-2CD at 90', a TH-11DX at 80' and a
TH-7DX at 45'. He also has a 75/80M 4-Square ! Throw
in an A3 on a portable winch-up tower at 50' for
selected contests.
Go
YCCC! Kick Butt.
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Trenching the yard for the
conduit going around the front of the house towards
the tower. More conduit is visible in the right of the
photo. I used Cablewave 1/2" Flexwell hardline to feed
the antenna. Top of tower is 280 feet away. Also
buried were two control lines containing eight 16
gauge pairs and one 10 gauge ground. |