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 80 foot articulating lift is needed
to reach the top. 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. Thru 2 - 90 degree gear boxes,
the shaft comes down to a sidemounted plate with the rotator accessable
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 "groundring" that has all parts
of the installation bonded together with all my utilities and radio gear
W9CAR - K9EID
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 new STEPPIR
4 element yagi. This antenna is continiously tuneable from 14 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.
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, 3-meter bank service was installed
on the back of my garage out of site. My house was upgraded from 100 to
200 amp underground, and now that the carrier has left I have plenty of
capacity with 2 more meter sockets for any future return of another carrier
or other type of communications needI welcome any comments, suggestions,
or questions. All e-mails will be answered. And
that is how the TOWER OF POWER was born!
