ROHN 25G foundation

[John K5PRO]

After a delay to gather materials, I'm back at raising this tower. I had trouble finding  a power auger to screw in anchors for guys. The rental units were made for two men, but they are difficult to handle at a 45 deg angle to horizon. A local driller wanted $350 for an hour. I found that the linemen here don't use screw-in anchors for poles around here, they use these bust plate anchors made by AB Chance, sold by Hubbell. The are cheap ($12) and screw into a 5/8 or 3/4 steel rod ($12) with a knuckle for the guys. Properly installed in decent soil, good for 10,000 lbs of pull, better than the guys. I hand-dug the holes and installed these things, must be 8 inch diameter. Then slam the top of them with a tamper rod, and voila, they expand to grip the sides of the hole. As the guy pulls the lower plate forces them to open and grip better. A lot easier than screw-ins or concrete anchors, and more economical.

[John K5PRO]

The anchor rods were 7 feet long, screwed into the bust anchors. To dig the holes, I used a regular post hole digger until it ran out of length and the poles required pulling apart to lift out dirt, making a larger incision hole on the surface. I got this new digger called the Hole Deal, from the Internet. It is a reverse action post hole digger, you squeeze the handles together to grab the dirt. Also weighs 15 lbs so its a bugger to dig deep with. The first photo shows the compliment of tools used, with the new green colored digger. I was able to bury the anchor 6 feet deep for each guy, and expanded them, then tamped the dirt as I refilled around them. These anchors seemed to work nicely, so all my digging is done, no power auger needed.

[John K5PRO]

Here are the bust anchors in the box, they were coated in a liquid tar substance. The next photo is the finished guy anchor before backfilling the hole. They stick out 1 foot, so I got the anchor 6 feet into the hole. I used a Sears digital level to set them all at 45 degrees from vertical. Last photo shows the completed tower base in concrete. This weekend will raise it to 25 feet, and install the first guys. These are the original ones, having 500D strain insulators every 13 feet. The second set at 45 feet will use Phillystran cable, as I can use less thimbles, clamps, or preforms. Haven't ordered that yet.

I found a source of cable grips for 3/16 EHS, cheaper than Klein. They are made by Eagle Line tools, PG-1704, for $68 each. With three come-alongs and these, tensioning the guys should be relatively painless. Anyone got a Loos PT2 gauge they could loan me for a few weeks? I hate to buy one, for this one use, but the Philly needs some way to set tension. Or is there a better way?

[WA1GFZ]

If you think about it the guy anchors are more important than the tower base. That is why mine are set in concrete and the screw base was just a better interface rather than welding rebar to it.

[John K5PRO]

My 'new' tower sits at 22 feet right now, without guys yet. Turns out the SK that erected it originally had gotten about half the U clamps right, and half wrong. Don't saddle a dead horse..... Since the live end of the 3/16 EHS was crimped badly from the U, I cut those ends off and am re-terminating them correctly - didn't want to compromise strength in our wind. They were three lengths, as the guy had the thing fitted into a small yard, one was 30, one 40 and one 50' long, approx, with fairly steep angle.  All three of my first level guys are 36-37 feet long, measured from the tower to anchor, so I can move things around to make it up with the old EHS. Insulators are spaced roughly 13 feet apart on the first level.

I just spend a chunk of change and bought Phillystran for the upper level of guys, with preform dead ends and such. If the weather co-operates, the guys will go on over the holiday and I can erect the rest of the sections. We are expecting SNOW tomorrow and Thanksgiving.
 
Question for the collective here is:
How to you check tension in Phillystran? (4000 pound rating)

Thanks

[John K5PRO]

My lower guys were installed today, without problem. Used 3 come-alongs (one was a fence puller I had) along with Eagle Line grips to tighten the 3/16 EHS. Its sturdy as a rock at 22 feet now. Tomorrow, will lift the remaining sections with gin pole and install the upper guys of Phillystran 4000I. Weather has gotten nice for antenna work again. Hot diggity.

[John K5PRO]

Today, a neighbor helped and we got 1 1/2 more sections up, above the first guy bracket. The tower is at 37 feet, and there is one more section to go, plus the upper bracket and guys at 40 feet. These are Phillystran. Had to stop as a brisk northern wind picked up.

It looks like I will need a short length of 3/16" EHS guy, from the turnbuckles down to the anchor knuckle. About 4 feet per guy, or 12 to 15 foot piece. I only have a few scraps of a foot or two each left over. Where can I get this stuff, without buying 100 feet (Texas Towers and others have minimum roll now)?

Photo shows the tower at sunset today.

[John K5PRO]

The weekend brought a nice day Saturday, and my top section was installed using the Gin Pole. I began measuring and cutting the upper guys when a massive cold front blew in, bringing gusts of 40 MPH for hours. Yikes! I wasn't able to attach my new Phillystran upper guys, although had them cut and ready with Preforms wrapped. After a long night of wind, it quit yesterday and at 7 AM, I was up on the tower, while the gittin' was good. I got the upper ends attached to the torque bars (from Norms Fabrication). I finished adjusting the lower ends with a section of 3/16 EHS to allow a measuring tail for a Loos meter. The 12 inch turnbuckles, while overkill for fine tuning, were great for taking up slack. By noon it was done. Tensions all set at ~430 lbs. In the photos, the final tower is shown, sans antennas. That will come later, right now we are getting a major snowstorm today (Dec. 15). You can see the old tower in the background, and faintly see a trap dipole at 20 feet above ground. This will be replaced with a higher power-rated long dipole fed by ladder line on the tower. A Gates and Continental transmitter are located in the new building/garage behind the tower. I hope to also power the structure as a vertical, so radials will become part of the picture in the future. Happy holidays, and thanks for all the comments!
73