The AM Forum

hi All
The radio season is near and I am looking for a source for a 96 foot(even an 80 footer) tower. Apparently there are cheap and dirty self-supporting aluminum towers available. It's only purpose is to be a radiator for RF. Anybody around in Western Pa that sells/installs for school bus companies/public safety??
I have been inquiring here in the commo shop (yup working again) (of all places) and no info.
Thanks

Fred

I want a copy of a Blaw-Knox tower. Those things are the shit. What a pole for 160.


http://www.hawkins.pair.com/blaw-knox.html (http://www.hawkins.pair.com/blaw-knox.html)

I was up in J-town today Phred.

I got the tour of WSM AM in 1969 ... at the time the transmitter was still the old 50kW unit from the 1930s as I recollect ... the mod xfmr was a large one, about the size of a sofa ... you could hear everything going out on the air straight from the laminations ... I have no idea of what they are using now

Phred,

you should make a blaw knox copy in 1/7th sale size,  or whatever would put you at around 100 ft. Paint it up up red and white.....insulate the base from ground.... b cooler than ice cream....

There's a company called Trilon around here that might be able to help. I'm just snooping around for a hopeful cheap way to have a real antenna for 160, instead of short miracle antennas. The Cushcraft MA160 is a respectable antenna though for only 27 feet tall. 30 over sigs to Rhode Island using the RA 250.
The boss is will give me some CATV cable with the tranformers. I'll bury that stuff and run it right to the shack. I also have to devise a removable radial system, as the existing one was all chopped up from mowing. Usually the grass or whatever is green will pull the wire down to the ground and no problems with damage. Not this time, as my luck goes.
I have to come up with a remote tuner for the existing 160 antenna to use the entire band. Motorized cap and inductor.
Can you imagine what it was like at WLW with the 500kw tranny??
Phred

You sure you don't mean Trylon ??? out of Ontario Canada
Looks like all steel stuff
http://www.trylon.com/lightdutytowers/lightdutytowers.asp

hi Phred ... phunny way to spell ... around here the full year way to keep on 160 seems to be reverse feed with elevated radials ... K4BP uses a 90 ft Rohn 45 with 2 5el 20 m monobanders rev fed at approx 30 foot w 4 radials ...uses a line flattener .... gets good results ...wish I had one ...73...John

Theres a Blaw-Knox tower just north of here in Manchester.  The transmitter building is a small but classy looking brick structure at the base of the tower.  I think it's WGIR 610 AM. 
The station lost the original WOODEN tower in the hurricane of '38.  The concrete pads of which can be seen still in the big field around the tower.

It's visible right next to the highway as you head north (Rt 3) and is very cool!!!

The DERB
started the Phred thing.
Ther's an idea brewing in the old head..I have a 70 foot utility pole with a Cushcraft A3S at the top. There is also an untuned, sort of  Vee, just under the Yagi. This is attached to the pole with a dipole hanger with ropes and pulleys so I can pull the feedline down for maintenance.
My brewing thought was to pull up a separate wire so it can be the "Vertical" and at the base of this "wire vertical" could be the radial system/remote tuner to "move " the resonant freq anywhere on 160M.


The twist to this is that there is a coax run and rotor control cable stapled to the utility pole. The last time I brought this up, others advised against it, coz there might be RFI issues with the cables coming down the pole into the shack. TheTEE thought another paragraph below and this wire vert would be about 5 feet from these cables.
Is there a way to avoid this possible RFI problem/disturbance to the "wire vertical"??
Lightning bolt thought::::::::::::::::

I could convert the vee to a Tee. The ladderline could become a radiator. At the base of the "TEE" I can design a tuner/radials and run coax to the base for a 50 ohm system.

Thanks for any input

Fred