My Summer Tower Project
by Paul@VE3SY.com 

In the fall of 1999 I was able to acquire the bottom half of a 120 foot self supporting commercial tower.  With the top section having a horizontal center of 3 feet it was almost a perfect fit to attach twenty additional feet of L&R 36 inch face tower that Lui Bot VE3CUB and  I had acquired earlier in the year from a surplus CBC microwave project.

Lui modified the mount of the L&R to mate to the existing section and also fabricated a very heavy duty top bearing plate from 4 inch angle iron and 3/8 steel plate with a 3.5 inch bearing in the middle. (see photo) 

When one plans to build an 80 foot tower with the type of loading I was planning on, a substantial concrete footing is required. 

 Schindler Tower of Cambridge (Ron Schindler VA3DXI) did the design and construction of the footing and tower with Bob VE3XOO digging a perfect footing with his backhoe.  As you can see from the photo this was no simple footing with the size being 8 1/2 feet square and 6 feet deep.

Ron Schindler is shown here spacing the re-bar while the first truck load of concrete was poured into the hole.

Here's a few photos of the 16 metres of concrete being poured.  The best invention for moving this amount of concrete around the footing and the re-bar is the vibrator which Ron is using in the photo to the left.

The triangular template in the photo above was used to align 12 long "J" bolts (4 per leg) that will hold the tower to the pad.

The home brew rotor (by Lui VE3CUB) with the 3 inch top drive is in the foreground of the above photo.  I was able to access the tower site through the adjoining hay field which minimized the lawn damage. 

After the concrete had cured for three weeks it came time to build the tower.

The first three sections were twenty feet long with the base section having a face of five feet so there's no-way that any of the sections were able to be moved without a crane.  The two 10 foot L&R 36 sections are constructed from solid steel and also required the crane to lift into place.

LATTA Crane of Cambridge did the lifting with the complete tower erection going up in exactly one hour.

With the tower in place the next job was the installing of the antennas and rotor.  The rotor is a heavy duty unit designed and built by Lui Bot VE3CUB.

It is shown here with the covers removed and consists of a half horsepower reversible AC motor driving a double reduction worm gear assembly with a final chain drive reducing the speed to <1 RPM.

To allow for minor mast to rotor alignment issues a double chain with the bottom sprocket  being on the rotor and the top attached to the bottom of the 3 inch mast was used in Lui's design.

To support the rotor Lui fabricated this platform out of 2" x 4" hollow structural steel with 1/4 inch wall.  Each of the three corner brackets are clamped to each leg with two, 1/2 inch galvanized u-bolts.

The largest of the four antennas to be mounted was the 204BA 20 meter full size 4 element beam with its 28 foot boom and 34 foot reflector.  Lui and Ron are doing a few last minute checks before it was hoisted into place.

The other HF antennas are 3 element full size beams for 15 and 10 metres.

John Olsen of Schindler Tower was the rigger for the antenna installations shown here 15 feet above the tower top (left) mounting my tri-band Diamond verticle for 6m, 2m, and 70cm.  The center photo is the 15 metre beam being raised into place while the photo on the right is John at the 80 foot level manhandling the 20 metre 204BA alone.  You can get a feel for the size of the top tower section and the main mast size from this photo.

Special thanks to Lui Bot VE3CUB (r) for his expert design and fabrication of numerous special mounts and brackets, along with the heavy duty rotor and control box as well as his tower climbing talents.  And to Jack Dolson VE3GED (l) for his help on the ropes and winch.  The team are shown here enjoying a pair of 807s driving another pair of 807s to follow.

Thanks Lui and Jack.

 Paul VE3SY
www.ve3sy.com