[NLRS] Tower and Antenna [long] [somewhat sad]

[Tod-ID]

After a lot of soul searching, and upon the advice of several physicians and
encouragement of my wife, I have grudgingly decided that I will no longer
regularly climb my 88 foot Heights aluminum tower located in Long Lake.
Instead I will arrange for someone else to have the pleasure of using it to
operate in contests and chase DX. The time for me to do this is now when
sunspots are low so that a new owner can experience the joy of a great
antenna when the sunspots increase.

I have set a target of two and 1/2 years for finding someone who wishes to
acquire the tower and to make arrangements for them to become the owner. The
tower package includes the KLM34XA at the top, the tail twister (TX2)
rotator and control box, several runs of CATV hard line and the rotator
control cable. 

The top tower section is 18 inches wide on a face and the bottom sections
are 26 inches on a face with double thickness tubing walls to handle very
large antenna wind loads. The tower top is not pointed but instead has a
flat plate of steel about 1/2 inch thick and 20 inches on a side, which
holds the top thrust bearing. One can comfortably sit on the top and work on
things. The antenna mount is a PVRC type which allows 360 degrees of
rotation of the boom and elements. Four feet below the top bearing is
another thrust bearing which restricts lateral motion of the mast and four
feet below that is the rotor plate which holds the TX2. The system is
designed to allow all the weight of the mast and antenna to be held by the
bearings and none by the rotator. There are fittings inside the tower to
allow the mast to be raised and lowered so that one can have stacked
antennas. The tower sections are pinned together with stainless steel pins,
SS washers and SS cotter pins. There are no bolts to deform the section ends
or to form electrolytic cells with the aluminum. There is a moveable, home
brew, side mount platform which allows one to stand with both feet on a flat
surface while working on assemblies at the top of the tower.

In the period I have had the tower in place the antenna at the top has
changed several times -- yagis, multiple stacked yagis, a four element quad
and a four element quad with an interlaced 40 meter beam. A few years back
it had two side mounted phased 14 element yagis for 2 meters positioned at
63 feet above ground [section here has 22 inch face]. At the moment there is
a dual band vertical for 2m-70cm at the top of the mast which is part of the
TLAN West station located in my house. There is also a side mounted dual
band (70 cm/2m) collinear antenna which is included in the package.


Transfer of ownership includes the arrangements necessary to disassemble the
antennas and the tower and move the components safely to the ground. The
work and cost of that will be the responsibility of the new owner. I am
prepared to be a consultant but cannot participate in the physical work. I
can prepare a detailed set of instructions covering the subtasks that must
be done to end up with all of the antenna items safely on the ground. I made
such a set of instructions some years ago when we put the KLM at the top --
K0HB and a few other MWA'ers did much of the work and probably remember the
'overkill' set of instructions. BUT, we did have the  correct tools at the
correct time and everyone on the job knew exactly what was happening at
every step. There were no surprises or disasters. 


The planning for the installation of such a tower takes substantial time and
effort. In some cases one needs to get municipality approvals. For that
reason I have decided that I will work with the future owner -- both in
terms of planning and purchasing and expect that it will take many months to
reach the final objective.


The pricing and paying for this tower and antenna system is very negotiable.
I am prepared to 'work things out' with a prospective owner. I would very
much like to find someone who is a member of MWA or NLRS who would like to
be the new owner. Failing that I would like to find someone in the TCDXA who
wants to own it. If I cannot find someone in those organizations within my
time period I will consider other amateurs.

The first stage is to advise people that this tower is available. The next
is to allow interested persons to visit my QTH or contact me on the phone to
get a better idea for themselves about the exact set of components and to
gauge the effort which will be required to make it their own. As many of you
know, I travel regularly between Idaho and Minnesota. While there are others
living in my Long Lake house on a full time basis, this matter requires my
personal attention and they will not be able to answer questions about it.

If you are interested in seeing the installation and maybe entering into
negotiations to become its owner I ask that you give me a call and we will
set up a mutually agreeeable time to meet. If you know someone who may not
see this email but you think might want to see if this is something for them
I urge you to send them a copy of the email.

My telephone number is 952-473-4539. This number will reach me wherever I
happen to be in the US. 

Thanks for reading this far. Some of you who have known me for a long time
probably have an idea of the 'psychological trauma' of even thinking about
no longer having a nifty antenna at my Long Lake QTH.


Tod, K0TO