Roof Towers, Brands, Availability.. Opinions!

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 10:55 am

I have been shopping for a roof mounted tower, not a tripod, but the four legged variety, some call them a quad pod, and some just call them a roof mount or roof tower.

I have only found a few retailers online that carry them and they all seem to carry the same models from Glen Martin Engineering. Is there anyone else out there making these now??

Seems to me they used to be in the AES catalog but i can't find any in there now days. If things go as planned i will finally be moving before winter to a larger home and i would like to put one of these on the roof to support a modest array of antenna's, along with a rotor for a couple small beams.

The Glen Martin ones look nice and support a large enough wind load for my needs, but as always i like to comparison shop and hear from others that already have one in use. Why not a regular tower you ask? No where to put one at the home i am looking at, trees and a close neighbor to one side, and power lines adjacent to the back yard and alley, the other side is a possibility if one tree was removed and the neighbor went along with it, not holding my breath on that though.

The best place on the property is the clear sky above the house, two stories with some attic crawlspace, nice high roof but easy to climb shape, would be perfect for a roof tower, and i gain a lot of height cheaply using the house. I'm thinking no taller than 5' so it's still easy to work on things without having to climb up, i worked on one before of this type, a few minutes to unbolt the bottom of the mast and loosen the thrust bearing and just slide the mast down to reach the antenna's, that's what i want.

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 11:18 am

Have you looked through Tessco's online catalog?

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 12:18 pm

Yep, nothing but the usual cheapo tv antenna tripods. Nothing that suites my needs, at least i couldn't find anything comparable to the Glen Martin models shown here:

http://www.glenmartin.com/industrial/pg17.htm

I like the RT-424 but before i commit to anything i want to see options, especially before spending $189.95 for the roof tower alone.

JAYMZ · Post by **JAYMZ** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 12:37 pm

Scott... I have and use the GlenMartin 4.5 foot stand on my house. It's top notch as far as I am concerned. It's cheap, easy to assemble and easy to load onto the roof.

As soon as I find the pictures I took I'll post them.

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 12:45 pm

Would be great to see some pictures of an actual install. Also, did you have to do much reinforcing from inside to bolt it to the roof or did you just manage to lag bolt it to the rafters?

I plan on having a dual band vertical on top, a dual band 2m/70cm yagi, horizontal for SSB of course, and then a 6m 3 element beam on the bottom. I did the planning for mast length, weight, wind load, and it all seems to be within the specs of the Glen Martin roof tower. And of course a rotor, most likely a Ham IV or similar.

On the other end of the roof i will also be putting up a small tripod for supporting a mast with a 2m and 6m horizontal loop and as a support point for some other various wire antennas and a scanner antenna, since it won't need to turn i don't need to use a heavier duty roof tower for those. I am also planning on reusing a remote coax switch i have and putting that on the Glen Martin tower to select between beams and loops for 2m and 6m. Best of both worlds when in a contest situation, find them with the omni loop and then switch to the beam to peak em up.

Bruce1807 · Post by **Bruce1807** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 1:54 pm

Try

http://parts.valmont.com/aspx/part.aspx ... subid2=726

They have some good quad towers.
Although I have put single and double sections of Rohn 45 on the rooftops of EOC's and they work great and have survived cat 4 hurricannes. (It's all in the mounting)

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 2:01 pm

Nice looking towers, but nothing of the roof mount variety on that website like what i am looking for. If you look at the Glen Martin link i provided above you will see what i am looking for, mainly suited to be installed at the peak of a normal house roof, though they can be mounted on a flat surface.

Just a tripod with an extra leg.. lol

I guess Roof Tower, is not really a good use of terms but that's what they call it. It's really a quad pod, or four legged tripod.

JAYMZ · Post by **JAYMZ** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 2:31 pm

I specifically did not lag into a rafter. I set the tower up, drilled the holes.. reinforced with 2 layers of 2x4's screwed in place between the rafters... drilled again at 8 inch bolts, washers, lock nuts and stainless strapping screwed to the rafters... no pictures of that though... even in April it was hotter than the anvils of hell in the attic.

Pictures are probably on CDs at home... but as soon as I find them you can see how it sits on the house..

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 2:55 pm

Ok, i was wondering about that, being the base is 24" and normal framing is on 16" centers. That will make an install in the house i am looking at a difficult process but still do-able, the second floor was remodeled with only a very small, about a foot or so, of air/crawl space above the ceiling for air circulation, wiring, etc. The rafters form the sloped ceiling on the sides of the rooms, with insulation and those plastic air chutes to circulate from the eve's to the ridge.

I guess i could always cut another access hole in the ceiling below the mounting location to add the blocking.

va3wxm · Post by **va3wxm** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 4:04 pm

I've only ever heard of the Glen Martin ones.

I know two guys that have had them for years and no problems at all. Each are supporting a TGM Mini-Quad which would be a bigger wind load than what you're proposing.