Tri-Ex LM354 Tower Page 1 |
The ultimate thing a Ham can have is a tower! Of course the bigger and taller, the better. Being limited in budget and relatively close to high voltage power lines, I reluctantly realized that a 50 foot tower was all I could fit. I happened on a used Tri-Ex LM-354 54 foot crank-up in pretty good condition. The only piece missing was the base. I called Carl at Tashjian Towers (he bought Tri-Ex) and he set me up with a new base and coax arms. Next was applying for the permit. That of course turned out to be a hassle but with Carl's help, a legal threat, $271 and several trips to City Hall, I received the permit in 3 months, just in time for winter. The following pictures help to document the project. The actual installation took place from December 2004 to January 2005.
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Close view where tower center will be. 3 feet from wall and A/C pad. 10 foot Ground rod behind A/C is visible. I'm tired of having to look at the dead tower just lying on the ground.
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The the sweet spot.
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Assembling the rebar cage on the new base.
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I used creative wrapping.
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The completed cage.
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Help arrives. We needed our driveway replaced and these guys offered to dig the hole and do the cement work for a reasonable charge. So I thought I'd take the easy way out this time and let someone else do the hard work. As it turned out, I should have dug the hole and installed the base and let them just handle the concrete.
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Placing the auger.
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Starting the hole as the tower watches.
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First dirt.
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Going down.
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That's about 3 feet now. Not much dirt coming to the surface however. As it turned out, the ground was just too soft and wet so the drill just spun around without bringing up the dirt. Ended up having to dig it by hand after all. The Bobcat did help to loosen the dirt and managed to tear up the rest of the lawn with the wheels and its weight. Oh well.
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All the auger did was loosen up the dirt. Now to remove it by hand.
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Loosen up a few more feet.
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Still just spinning in the dirt.
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Back to removing more dirt by hand.
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Break time.
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Now set the form in place. Tower base inserted to check depth. The nice lawn is history.
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The hole was supposed to be 3'x3'x6' but ended up at 3'3" square so we made the form 3'6" square.
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The contractor and his help decided to "hang" the base from the 2x4's using rebar wire. The thought was that they could more easily adjust it into position as the concrete is added. I was worried about this plan. They decided to do it this way on their own and not follow the tower base installation instructions.
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