[NLRS] Need any tower parts? Visit to Charles Electronics Mt. Carroll Illinois

[w0ohu at yahoo.com]

 Near Rockford, IL
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So, I set out to find if Wilson antenna’s still made this antenna…  Through internet searching, I learned they do not, and in fact Wilson sold off all of their antenna and mast product line… But, good news, I found out who bought it… Oh, more bad news, because that place also was sold….  Persevering, I found out that a company called Charles electronics had bought out Maco Antenna, including all rights to Wilson antennas….
The real shock came when I learned that Charles Electronics is located in Mt. Carroll Illinois, about 24 miles from me and really close to Alan   !!!!!!!
I reached out to Tom Charles the owner and learned he can provide any piece of this Wilson beam….  And, I asked him if maybe Alan and I could come down and tour his operation.
Well, last Friday Alan, W9AN,  and I did just that….   I guess I did not have such high expectations,,, Maybe a guy working in his garage that may have stuff stored in other buildings nearby….
Wow, was I in for a surprise… It was sort of like what I expected, only raised to an exponent, a very large exponent…. What commenced from about the moment Alan and I walked in the door was one very fun, informative and mind blowing tour of an antenna factory…!!!!!!
I took some pictures, but, I should have taken a lot more !!
Charles electronics operates as Maco Antennas, Gizmochy antennas, , skip shooter antennas  and antenna parts outlet.com   I don’t know the brand name of the military, NASA and TV antennas they make.
Tom told us, “I can make anything anyone wants, I just do not have the time”.
They make antennas for the military, for NASA, TV antennas, Amateur antennas including VHF and mobile CB antennas for over the road trucks and a huge variety of CB antennas, beams of their own design etc. etc….  I have no idea, but, I would say the different antennas they produce on site must measure in the hundreds of different models.
For instance, just walking through one of the production rooms, there was a box on a shelf with parts in it… The box was labeled   23KW gamma match……  I have no idea what that is for, but, clearly not amateur or CB….!!!!
In addition to that, they sell Rohn Tower and Universal towers and stock TONS of tower components… They sell other kinds of roof mounts, masts, crank up masts…. They stock literally miles of all kinds of coax, guy wire, rotor cable….. If it involves putting an antenna up in the air, they have it… The amount of miscellaneous hardware, nuts, bolts, U bolts etc. etc. is mind boggling….
Tom has really created something magical in this little town… All of his employees have been with him forever, and are middle aged or older…. He said… “They do not need me, they all know what to do, and are very good at it”.    Thats a rare find in todays world to have employees that care that much, are that skilled and that you can trust.   There was one young girl there working in their tiny office with Tom’s wife… That young girl we heard on the phone, consulting with a customer who was trying to tune his antenna…. Pretty impressive.
It’s been four days since I was there and I still am in awe when I think about what we saw…
OK, enough of that, now for some pictures…..
This is just a shot of one assembly area, the place has tons of rooms just like this one…. The tubing you see here, it’s a lot, but, this is just the stuff prepped for assembly and packaging.. Note the swaged ends on the big tubes there.

The guy in the picture below is assembling the loading coils for fiberglass whip CB antennas… They are wound on a fiberglass rod, then covered in heat shrink… The colored rolls of stuff is the heat shrink tubing… However, it’s a tiny amount of the heat shrink tubing they stock here.

And, speaking of inventory… They store stuff all over the place, if there is a building nearby, they have it filled with something…  
This is a bundle of 1/2” tubing… Most of what they buy, they buy cut to the length they need it….  This bundle, the total length of tubing in that bundle is 4,500 feet   !!!!!!   And, in the building it was in,,, there were literally hundreds of bundles just like this one  !!!!!

And, speaking of swaged tubes, Tom had Alan and I each swage a tube… He said it was fun and he did not lie…. Here is Alan, out of retirement and working as a tube swager.

Alan admiring the first tube he has ever swaged….. Alan and I are thinking of going there and working for free just so that we can swage tubes all day.

So, I would say, most of the tower Tom sells by volume is Rohn tower…. And, he stocks a ton of it..  He said when people call Rohn interested in buying tower, they usually send the customer to him…. He says most towers ship within a day of ordering. 
I believe him, I have been to Rohn tower in Peoria, and I did not see as much tower as what Tom has on his property.  
Alan is thinking,,, “lets see, how tall of a tower can I make with this…..”

And some more tower…..
And still more tower…..
Oh, and, will you look at that,,,, there is more tower over there… It’s everywhere….
We never even went to the building where the Universal tower is stored !
Thats the best I can do to show you what we witnessed… Imagine though, all those different sizes of tower, and countless models of antennas and the accessories needed for all of that and all of the possible hardware that has to go with those… Bases, clamps, guy wire stakes etc. etc.   
I am kicking myself for not taking more pictures, but, pretty much it was overwhelming…
 
And, the added bonus is, Tom is fine with doing retail sales out of his location, so, I will be back there buying rotor cable and coax and who knows what else in the near future……  Break an element on an antenna, Tom can fix you right up  !!!!


  
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