Just for fun, I took drone footage showing the view from the top of the tower. To get the video, I used a DJI Mini 4K drone, and did some light editing in Microsoft Clipchamp. I am still learning to fly the drone and edit videos. This is a first attempt, and hopefully I will get better with more experience.
Category: Tower
Completed My Station Upgrades!
It has been a long journey, but I have finally completed all of the station updates that were started over a year ago. Several of my ham friends came over to pull coaxial cables through conduit, connect coax to the entry panel, and align the rotator. I had some additional work inside the shack to set up a new amplifier and computer. After double-checking every connection and configuration, everything is working great and I am very happy with my (mostly) new station!
Outside I have a U.S. Tower MA-40 tower with Yaesu G-800DXA rotator turning a K4KIO hexbeam antenna with elements for 20-6M. I also have a MyAntennas 80-10M end-fed halfwave antenna, and a discone antenna for my scanner. These are all fed through underground conduit to a KF7P entry panel with Morgan Systems lightning arrestors for the coaxial and rotator cables.
Inside the shack, my station consists of a Icom IC-7610 transceiver and SPE Expert 1.5K-FA Taurus amplifier for HF. For CW, I use a UR5CDX paddle with a WinKeyer USB and MRP40 decoder software. For digital, I primarily use WSJT-X, but sometimes dabble in RTTY and other digital modes. I have a ERC Mini DX as a USB interface with the Yaesu control box, along with PstRotatorAZ software.
For VHF and UHF I have an Icom IC-97oo, as well as an Alinco DR-06TA for use on the local 6M repeater. I use a Uniden SDS-200 scanner to monitor various communication in the local area.
I also updated the TV I had over my station with a 43″ 4K Smart TV. It has 4 HDMI inputs so I can switch between displaying GeoChron and HamClock, or as a third monitor for the computer. I upgraded my trusty Windows 10 shack computer with a new Windows 11 computer. I have Raspberry Pi touchscreen display running WeatherFlow PiConsole software to display weather data from a WeatherFlow Tempest station. I have two MMDVMs, an OpenSpot 4 Pro and a TGIFSPOT 3.5 inch Nextion. Finally, there is a Google Nest Hub that I use as a photo frame and for streaming music and monitoring security cameras.
I am looking forward to many years of good DXing!
Raising the Tower
I have not posted any updates for a long time. Since my last post, the new tower has been raised. There is still some work to do. Mainly, running the cable and installing an entry panel. There was steady progress until hurricane Helene came through our area at the end of August. Here are some pictures of the construction and the finished tower. Most of the construction took place during the Summer of 2024.
It all starts with digging a hole. This one is 5 feet deep by 3 feet wide.
After the hole was dug, the rebar cage went in.
The forms for the concrete base were then added. I also added some trenches to lay conduit for coax. I have a wire antenna on the mast at the fence. The conduit will route that coax to the tower, then coax from all antennas will come from the tower to an entry panel at the shack.
The concrete for the foundation was poured, and after a few days of curing, the tilt base and tower were bolted onto the foundation.
Then the rotator and a tilt plate for the hexbeam were installed onto the tower.
Several friends came over for an antenna party to build the hexbeam.
After it was built, we tested the SWR and it was excellent on all bands, 20M to 6M.
A few days later, the hexbeam was attached to the rotator, and the tower and antenna were raised.
I mentioned that hurricane Helene introduced some delays in finishing the project. I had the tower fully lowered. The hurricane force winds came from the south, and the tower is on the north side of the house, so the tower and hexbeam were not damage. The biggest holdup is that the winds bent the mast and the eave mount for my VHF/UHF vertical on the roof of my house. The vertical is now hanging over too far for me to fully raise the tower. I need to get a lift to either remove or repair the vertical mount.
I also still need to install the entry panel, which will involve drilling through the wall to route the coax from the panel into the shack. I hope to get those things done in the next few weeks.
The Tower Finally Arrived!
I recently purchased a U.S. Tower MA40 crank-up tubular tower. The ordering process through the Ham Radio Outlet store in Atlanta was fairly easy and straightforward. I was told there could be a 20+ week lead time when I ordered it, but it arrived earlier than expected. If you are considering buying a new tower, be sure to include the cost of freight in your expense calculations. The cost of freight from California to Georgia was close to a third of the price of the tower itself.
This is a relatively small free-standing tower at 40 ft high, and it’s really more of a super heavy-duty mast. It can be cranked down to 21 ft in the event of high winds or bad weather. I also bought the MAB-40 tilt-over base, which will allow the tower to be completely lowered for very bad conditions or to perform maintenance on the antenna or rotator.
I will be using a K4KIO hexbeam antenna with elements for 20M through 6M, and a Yaesu G-1000DXA rotator. I also need to start work on an entry panel with lightning protection for the coax and rotator cables. I will also route the cables for my existing wire antennas through the entry panel, and leave room for a few more.
I am very excited about the significant improvement the tower and antenna will make to my station. It will take some time to get the tower installed. The town I live in requires a Conditional Use Permit to install any type of tower on residential property. It definitely pays to learn about the municipal codes in your jurisdiction when planning to install a tower. I received some excellent advice through the ARRL Volunteer Counsel program. Fortunately, the Planning Department is supportive and giving me a lot of help to prepare the application, but the soonest it can be presented to the Board of Zoning Appeals is June.
For now, the tower is resting peacefully on the ground at the side of my house. There’s lots of work still to do, but I am getting closer to my dream of adding a directional antenna to the shack! More to follow as this project progresses.
