SEEKING TOWER INSTALLATION HELP IN DALLAS, TEXAS

Hello.
I am seeking help to install a Rohn 25 tower, 50 feet, free standing, but bracketed to my home. It will support a light weight Hex Beam, so wind load will be minimal.

If you are in the DFW area, or can recommend someone, I would like to hear from you.

Thanks, Rod, K5FRH
Irving, Texas

 

Hi Rod,
Sorry - am in Wisconsin. But even with that I don't have a tower (yet) and have no practical experience to offer.

But - unless you have a tall house, I wonder if you can free stand 50 feet of Rohn 25 as you describe?
Here is Rohn's Free Standing page: http://www.rohnnet.com/files/2015_Rohn_Full_Catalog.pdf#page=170

Assuming your Hex Beam is about 5 square feet of wind loading, plus another foot or two for rotator & mast - the chart seems to indicate about 30 feet.

Or am I reading it wrong (quite possible)??

 

There's no such thing as a 50 foot Rohn 25 free-standing Tower.
That is if you're putting it up to code and the manufacturer's recommendations.
Bracketing it to your house may or not may not work/ depending on whether you have a two-story house and what you are bracketing it to.

 

With a 2-story (or taller) home using two Rohn wall brackets installed per their instructions, 20' above the upper bracket and unsupported is fine. Maybe 30' with a small area load.

Their engineering docs do call for two brackets, not one.

 

Sounds like another "ham radio tower falls injuring/killing somebody" news story in the making.

How about a self-supporting tower, on a proper base, bracketed to nothing, that can safely go up 50' ? One that allows a bigger load for when you get sick of the hexbeam and want something better?

Half-ass a tower, get predictable results.

Plus a tower is either bracketed or freestanding - it can't be both.

 

Make sure your insurance covers the climber.

 

You have an excellent resource locally in Texas Towers. Be "guyded" by their advice.

I have been experimenting for years, trying to find a cheap, easy way make lots of 30-40 ft. supports for wire antennas. I often do things you shouldn't to. But all my experiments are out in the fields, where they can't hit anything but the ground. And so far, they all have! I still haven't found anything better than a push-up pole.

 

Agreed. 20' above the highest bracket or guy. Yes, per the specs you might get away with a small antenna and 30' but I wouldn't climb it and you should be prepared for some roof repair when it is blown over from high winds. If you want more than 20' unsupported I would move up to Rohn 45.

 

The Holy Grail for a lot of us, too. Ideally, we all would have planted Monterey Pines on our properties about twenty years before we became hams, eh?

73,

Jeff

 

Well, twenty years before I became a ham I was -4 years old, so...