Pictures of N5PA's New (Used) Tower and Antenna
April 5, 2011

As you may or may not know, I have basically been off the air for the last four years. We built a new house in 2007 and I did not put up my tower and beam from the old house. All of that is in storage over at our farm and someday I will erect the 82 footer over there.

I recently bought most of the estate of a deceased DXer. I picked up an Icom 756 Pro III, an Alpha 76A amplifier, an Ameritron AL-811H amplifier, a RigBlaster Pro, and a Hy-Gain Tailtwister Rotator. I was able to bring that part home with me. I also purchased a Hy-Gain HG52-SS crank up, self-supporting tower and a Tennadyne T8 Log Periodic antenna. The antenna was still in the air and the tower was on the ground. They offered to bring the tower and antenna to me when they got the antenna down, which they did this past weekend. I also got a large homemade gin pole to pull the tower up, as it folds over at the base. I will need to dig a 30"x30"x4' 3" hole for the tower foundation and one of my neighbors will dig that for me with an auger on the back of his tractor. I have to police up the tower and antenna before construction starts. I have ordered a new choke, SlippNot Retro Kit (Boom to Mast Bracket), and a Nut'n Bolt Kit to replace all the nuts and bolts, which uses Machine Screws and Nyloc Nuts instead of sheet metal screws. I am going to use steel wool to clean all the antenna parts and elements and replace all the nuts and bolts, while putting some Ox-Gard Anti-Oxident Compound where all the different sized element pieces go together. As far as the tower goes, I am going to police it up and then paint it with Rustoleum Cold Galvanized Paint before I go up with it. I am going to a local machinary company and get them to make the brackets that will go into the concrete for the bottom of the tower to mount to. Long story, short, here are some pictures I took last night between rain showers of the tower and antenna on the ground.



This picture is of the Hy-Gain HG52-SS tower looking from the top of the tower.



Another view of the tower from the top.



This is a view of the crank and the base. The big pulley is to put on the end of the big gin pole to easily raise and lower the tower.



This photo shows the base of the tower. It folds at the base. I will have three long and narrow plates/rods made to put in the concrete base to mount the tower on so it will fold over.



This is a picture of the Tennadyne T8 Log Periodic boom. The two pieces of square pipe are actually insulated from each other and you feed the antenna by connecting the output from the choke with the center conductor to the top boom section and the braid to the bottom boom section.



Since this tower and antenna were about a mile off of Mobile Bay, there is some corrosion to clean up. I am replacing the boom to mast bracket pictured here with a new SlippNot Retro Kit that has the clam shells that attach to the mast. I will clean all of the parts with steel wool before I put the antenna back together.



On the left are all the elements for the antenna. I am going to take each one apart and replace each screw with the new ones and I will put Ox-Gard Anti-Oxident Compound where each section of the elements go together after cleaning it with steel wool. The big rusty looking pipe on the right is the gin pole. The flat angle iron on the bottom will sit on the edge of the concrete foundation and then there is a pulley at the top. You can put a rope through that and bring the tower up easily. I am going to clean and galvanize this, also.



This is showing the top of the tower. I will have to purchase or build a rotator plate to go about 3 feet below the top of the tower. I will put the Tailtwister in the tower. I will probably add a thrust bearing at the top to take the weight off of the rotator and to prevent any binding.