Tower ideas?

[LJensen034]

Looking to make a tower on a budget.... On it would be 4-5 antennas for my CDM's & digital scanners..... I made one out of wood, doesn't look to sightly however... All the antennas are on mag mounts, which are on a metal plate on top.... Looking to do something safer with better looks, at a low cost..... Can't put anything on our roof due to landlord issues....

Any suggestions?

[Bill_G]

The landlord won't allow anything on the roof, but a tower is okay? And you want to build the tower yourself?

Have you considered a simple steel pipe mast? Connect several pieces of threaded steel pipe together (no more than 25ft or it gets too heavy to handle). Attach your antennas, run you lines, tip it into place, attach it to the house.

[Jim202]

Looking to make a tower on a budget.... On it would be 4-5 antennas for my CDM's & digital scanners..... I made one out of wood, doesn't look to sightly however... All the antennas are on mag mounts, which are on a metal plate on top.... Looking to do something safer with better looks, at a low cost..... Can't put anything on our roof due to landlord issues....

Any suggestions?

You first of all don't want to use mag mounts. They are not water proof and will go bad with time. Second comment about the mag mounts. They for the most part require a good ground plane below them to make most of the antennas people try to use with them function properly.

Question about this tower you envision, how do you propose to support it? There are generally two kinds of towers, those that you guy to keep vertical and those that are self supporting. Which kind are you planning on? The base under either one of them will require some digging and pouring some kind of a foundation. Will the landlord let you do this to his property?

Best you get some form of release from the landlord before you go too far with your project. You don't want to invest a bunch of time and expense on the tower and then find out he makes you take it down. It's his property. Your just a visitor there at his whim with no rights.

Jim

[mike m]

Also don't forget that most cities and counties will not give you any kind of permit, assuming that your city requires is and most do now, for a homemade structure like a tower anymore unless you are a licensed structural engineer and you can actually draw up plans showing that your tower design is feasible.

Your better off with a small push up mast that's guyed properly.