The AM Forum

I still see "roof towers" advertised in the catalogues of major ham radio equipment dealers.  What I am referring to is little self-supporting towers, anywhere from 4' to 20' high, that mount directly on the roof of a house. I couldn't imagine anyone would want to actually put one of those things on their dwelling.  Not only does it look uber-dorky to have a self-supporting tower and huge beam mounted on the middle of the roof of a house, those things are dangerous, not to mention the damage it would do to the roof itself.  There is unlikely any reliable way to calculate if the structure of the house will safely bear the stress and load under wind conditions, not that Hammy Hambone would even give a thought to that aspect of the issue.

Plus, I suspect they violate about every building code in the book there is to violate.  I would love to see the reaction those things would generate with HOA-nazi types.

The only case I could possibly think where one might look "cool" (to me) would be if the building had a flat or semi-flat roof, and you put up a pair and strung a cage antenna or multi-wire flat top between them, to resemble the antennas of broadcast stations in the 20's and early 30's, usually mounted atop a large hotel building in the middle of a major  city.

I suppose they were originally designed for TV antennas, for houses that did not have a usable chimney.  But I have seen some installations where hams put up full size 20m yagis on them.  Texas Towers sells them up to 20' in  length.  I would think a 20' roof tower supporting a full size beam for HF would be a monstrosity, that would take more careful engineering than a TV antenna.  As much as I appreciate the aesthetics of towers and antennas, I would think anything that large would be unsightly on a house.

How could any ham antenna be unsightly?  To the ham anyway...   I'm guilty, 4 different houses.   "The boss" hated them. She indeed thought it was ugly, but worse the noise scared her.  The guys would 'sing' in the wind and there was a bit of creaking that was very audible in the house - and always louder when I was out of town.

That's the bad news...  The good news is that when we moved here, she insisted "no more antennas on the house". That led to my first real tower.

That was 20 years ago.  She still thinks it's ugly and she still worries it will fall down on the house.  But it took her a couple years to realize the tower was actually in the front yard - it's base is 15' from the side of the house and about a foot forward of the front of the house. 

Through all this I have reminded her I've been a ham longer than we've been married... that I'll always be a ham -but not necessarily always married...  and even with the occasional gripes she will always be my first wife. That one took a little thought the first time I used it.

Seriously, aesthetics aside, there is nothing wrong with a roof top installation if it's properly engineered and carefully installed to deal with the roof penetrations.  The vertical load is a nit compared to snow loads.  A careless rooftop installation is probably less likely to kill someone than some of the half-assed tower installations I've seen.

I've got to go outside now that it's getting light and see how much ice is on my tower...   CUL.

73, Bill N2BC

A tower makes a great lightning rod protecting the house...that is my message.

I got one on the barn,Don. Been there nigh-on 20 years now. Right now it's got a 1/4 stick for 20M on it. It has held a few 2 and 6 meter antennas in the past. It also makes a great tie off point for wire ant supports now n' then.

On the house... never !

In the Oxon Hill Md QTH and no safe space for a 60 foot tower, I had a 30 footer on top of my house holding two Yagis. An A3S and the 17/12M 3 element Yagi. They were twisted so they would not interact with each other ( the elements were perpendicular to each other). Cushcraft was very interested in the setup, that they asked for some pics of the tower.
During my rich days the tower crew charged me $700 to install it and it withstood a lot of nasty wind storms and no leaks.
It was the strangest house in the neighborhood.................ha

Fred

Don,--
I once had a 20ft roof tower on the garage,(detached from house) around mid 60`s and had a home brew 20 meter quad on it using the "arm strong" method to turn it. 
It worked out good for DX but my Dad would never have let me put it on the house itself, as that
would have been looking for trouble.
                                                K1MVP