W9CAR, The Tower of Power


	W9CAR Tower of Power

RALPH, W9CAR

W9CAR, 2010

XYL. CHERYL, K9CSH

W9CAR MOBILE 2010

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Steel Radio Lake Mendota, Madison, Wis. WebCam
Solar Activity:

Geomagnetic Field

W9CAR, 2007.

CHERYL / K9CSH AND RALPH / W9CAR

HOW AND WHERE THIS ALL STARTED! I was watching the evening news one cold November evening in 1997 when a story happened to catch my ear. I scrambled for a pen and paper. The news anchor was talking about a neighborhood meeting scheduled for the following night at a church not far from my house. He was elaborating on the neighborhood's dismay at a cell phone company's application to the city to construct a tower in the area! That would definitely be a big meeting. As I thought things over I began to daydream about all the fantastic-but probably impossible-possibilities. I didn't sleep much that night, and the next day was mostly a blur. The meeting was scheduled for 7 PM, so I made sure I was there by 6:30. I began to mingle, listening to people talk. The attendees were neighbors, the media and me! I was sure the people from the cell company would show up and at least present their side. Nope, only us chickens! Finally, one of the TV guys told me who the carrier was and where they were from. That knowledge in hand, I quietly left. The next day my campaign began. Two years earlier I had put up a 48-foot self-supporting Rohn tower in five yards of concrete. Perhaps they would want to install their gear on my tower-for an attractive annual rental fee, of course! I called the cell company and was transferred to the carrier's local attorney who, to my surprise, warmed to my plans. The first thing we had to do was have the company's RF engineers come out to look at the site-my site, that is! My lot is quite elevated when compared to the surrounding terrain. In most directions it falls off 65 feet in only one block. This would allow coverage of a wide, heavily subdivided area with residential and commercial users. Next, a geological company had to come out and do a soil test bore to analyze it's composition. The big rig-set up like a well driller-sent a two-inch bit down to an eventual depth of 20 feet, where it hit solid bedrock. The soil tests came back fine. By that time, it was Thanksgiving, and that ended the month of November 1997. By the first week of December I was going nuts. No answers, no reports, nothing going on. But in the second week of December, the company reps wanted to talk to me. They said the site was fine, but they couldn't use my tower. They'd have to take mine down and put up a new one that would meet "commercial liability requirements." I said okay-as long as I get to put my antennas on the top of the tower! Their answer was "yes." I could have the top! WOW! So I decided to push my luck to the limit. "Can I design what I want?" I asked. The rep said, "You tell us what you want and we'll build it for you." I almost had a stroke right there. I've been on the air for 40 years by then and have never had a real antenna farm! The company gave me only two weeks to design my antenna system, so I took the challenge and hit the ground running. After I signed a letter of agreement so the engineering work could begin, I was dreaming about what I wanted. I knew I would only get one shot at it, so I had better shoot for the moon. And I did-all new antennas, coax, baluns, connectors, etc. And everything must rotate from the ground. I packaged the specifications of my "super array" and presented them to the cell company folks. I expected to see heads wagging from side to side. As you can imagine, I was totally shocked when all I heard was, "Okay, let's do it!" I was in heaven! The next hurdle was the city. What an education that was. We first had to secure a conditional use permit from the Planning Commission. Approval there happened in January 1998. Then we had to take the project before the Zoning Board! That required two January meetings. Then our project had to go before the full City Council. I had to appear along with our attorney for the final approval,which was granted in late January 1998! The next hurdle would be the most critical-the neighbors. How would we handle them? Very carefully. We had the city send invitations asking the neighbors to gather at my house one Saturday afternoon in January - 1998. Coffee, cookies, a nice fire in the fireplace and soft music on the stereo were calculated to set the mood. My wife and I, the cell company rep, our attorney and our city alderperson welcomed the neighbors as they arrived. I was really sweating this meeting, but to our surprise, it went off without one objection! It was handled quietly, respectfully, and not one person raised their voice in argument. It was great. Then, it took from mid-January until May 1998 for all the drawings, permits, etc, to be okayed. In the meanwhile, the cell company's general contractor began letting bids to all the subs interested in the job. My old tower was carefully taken down on June 1, 1998, and delivered to the ham friend I had sold it to. The new system was up and running by September 15, 1998. THE REST OF THE WEBSITE SHOWS IN DETAIL WHERE WE ARE TODAY.

16 TUBE LITED DISPLAY (2000)

W9CAR, 2005 shack

W9CAR TOWER REPAIR - 2005.

THE MONOPOLE TOWER The monopole is 18" in diameter and the walls are 1" thick steel. The monopole was built by PIROD ENG. of Plymouth, IN. It was built according to the specs I drew up for my amateur radio operation which included having all my rotatable antennas on the top of the tower and my rotating device down at ground level for easy service. To do any work on the antennas, an 85 foot articulating lift is needed to reach the top from my driveway. I designed the rotating system with a 3" galvanized shaft going all the way down the center of the tower and resting on a very heavy duty thrust bearing on the top of the first 4' tower section. The shaft is held in place by 1" thick teflon SPLIT bushings I designed ( CROSS-SECTION VIEW BELOW ) to act as a guide for the shaft in 3 places. The split design was created for easy replacement if a hard lightning hit damaged or destroyed them. After 3 good hits sofar, no damage. Then, thru 2 - 90 degree gear boxes, the shaft comes down to a side mounted plate with the rotator accessible from the ground! I can lock the shaft and remove the rotator for service and not disturb the array!! The base is bolted to a concrete & steel mount that goes down 20 feet in the ground. The entire tower is protected by a very heavy underground "ground ring" that has all parts of the installation cad welded together with all my utilities and radio gear


Tower Base.	W9CAR - K9EID

All about the Tower.

A real post hole digger	36 inch drill bit	Tower base section
Tower base mount	Tower install	Concrete base

THE TOWER OF POWER HAM RADIO ANTENNAS The HF antenna is the STEPPIR 4 element yagi. This antenna is continuously tunable from 7.0 mhz to 54 mhz with a STEPPIR motor individually tuning each element. The antenna is mounted at the 55 ft level. On the top is a DIAMOND X500HNA 144/440 mhz vertical.


	More Tower Installation Photo's

The tower is 2" from the eaves of the house. We had to keep it that close to maintain the 6ft distance from the property line! The old 100 amp overhead electric service was taken down and a new 400 amp underground was installed. The house was upgraded from 100 to 200 amp underground, which leaves 200 amps for the cell site. All e-mails will be answered. And that is how the TOWER OF POWER was born! 73, Ralph.. W9CAR

Sparky

Scooter

w9car, Ralph Henes Click HERE to E-Mail Visited since 04/15/2002 Last modified: 08/01/2008 The design and intellectual properties of w9car.com are owned by w9car and Radio and Other Notions. Email Webmaster.