Amateur Radio Antenna Tower Project

Hi all fellow Radio Amateurs and Hams, dear interested guests !

My new project reached a first milestone: Basement done.  The final tower height will be 18 m (approx. 50 feet) ... This tower is a Hummelmasten Explora 500 with an edge length of 500 mm.

See the pictures and enjoy ...

Step 1: Preparing the basement section of the tower with protective paint (bitumen).
The result: About 80 cm of the tower lower end covered in bitumen - 2 layers ... Took about 2 hours to get in all the little edges and to cover all hidden surfaces ...
Step 2: Digging the hole for the basement. 3,2 x 3,2 x 1,2 meters ... the little digger helped a lot. See also the panel of the photovoltaic power generation installation in the background ... 

Step 3: With the basement bottom concrete layer in the steel cage for the tower is built.

We need steel - more steel !
On the left side you see the two black tubes: The coax cables and the control lines for the rotor and even Ethernet will be provided through them ...  

Step 4: Bringing in the tower basement section. The section is then bolt to the basement concrete layer.

Step 5: Lightning protection. The lightning protection system consists of 4 ground rods going 4 meters deep into the earth at each edge of the basement and also a functional earth system for the tower and the basement.

Wow - bringing in the ground rods is no easy thing ... Fortunately I am the one taking photos ...
Ground rod. Stainless steel, 20 mm diameter.  

Functional earth ground connection to the tower. 10 mm  diameter stainless steel.

The guy in the red shirt is a professional lightning protection system builder - required in order to get an official OK for the installation.
 
Step 6: Creating the concrete reinforcement - 1 ton of steel ... The cage around the tower gets special attention.

Preparing the tower with foil in order to protect it from getting splashed with concrete.

Step 7: 10 cubic meters of concrete ready to be transported to the basement.


... and into the basement hole ...


Two hours later the filling is finished. (No, that's not me, that's the poor guy from the construction company who had to work for two hours straight with no pause in bright sunshine at 30 degrees Celcius ...)


Final bit: A pod is made to be the corner/edge between lawn and tower.

View into the garden from 1st floor balcony with the first milestone in building the new antenna tower reached.

To be continued ... (tower installation, antenna setup - an Optibeam OB16-5 ! ;-)

73, Frank DG1SBG

Standort: Neckartenzlinger Straße 9, 72658 Bempflingen, Deutschland

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