New Satellite and 6m Tower

[Fred Kemmerer]

[caption id="attachment_63008" align="aligncenter" width="480"] New Satellite and 6m Tower[/caption]

Our new tower is up! The tower is 36′ of Rohn 45G with a 9′-8″ chrome molly 2″ mast above the tower. The rotator is an M2 Orion mounted in the second section of the tower from the top. The tower is bracketed to our house and is quite stable and sturdy.

I can now begin installing hardlines, control cables, support gear, etc. on the tower. Plans also call for a second shack entry next to the new tower.

[caption id="attachment_31901" align="aligncenter" width="545"] 4.0 Satellite Antenna System[/caption]

Once our ISS contact is done, I’ll be installing the current 3.0 satellite antennas on top of the mast at about 45′ and a 6M7JHVHD yagi for 6m just below the top of the tower at about 38′.

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[Burns FISHER]

So what’s the plan?  The Orion is for azimuth for both sats and 6M, and you only use the elevation rotor for the satellite antenna?  Can you separate them on a Spid?

[Fred Kemmerer]

Hi Burns,

Great question. The Orion will be used to turn the 6m yagi and the AlfaSpid will be used to point the satellite antennas with the Orion parked at 0 degrees. The reason for doing it this way is that it allows the 6 m rotator to be part of the contesting system in our station here and the AlfaSpid to be connected directly to a Mac for use with MacDoppler.

It would be possible to do what you are suggesting – use the Orion for azimuth on both and only use the elevation section of the AlfaSpid to handle that part of satellite operations. Also, the azimuth section on the AlfaSpid is probably a little more precise than the Orion but that difference is probably pretty minor.

Fortunately, I have both a Green Heron Az/El rotator controller and a Green Heron Azimuth only controller here so it’s a bit of a toss-up really.

[Fred Kemmerer]

Here are a few more pictures from the installation of our new tower.

[caption id="attachment_63155" align="aligncenter" width="682"] Gin Pole Lifting Tower Section[/caption]

We used a Gin Pole to install the upper two sections of the tower. The photo above shows the top section being stacked using a Gin Pole.

[caption id="attachment_63157" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Mast Installation In the Tower[/caption]

Our mast is a 2″ x 22′ chrome molly one and it is quite heavy and difficult to maneuver. It is always a tricky proposition to get a mast installed on a new tower. One way to do it is to place the mast in the base, stack the tower around it and then pull the mast up through the tower at the end. This is how we handled the mast on our 100′ tower. In this case, we just pulled the mast up inside the top section of the tower before stacking the combination of the top section and the mast inside it onto the rest of the tower.

[caption id="attachment_63156" align="aligncenter" width="682"] View of House Bracket[/caption]

The last step in the process was to install the house bracket. This requires 2″x6″ reinforcing boards to be placed on both the outside and inside of the house wall. Large bolts are then used to fasten the tower bracket through the wall of the house and the reinforcing boards.

Our design called for about 10′ of the mast to stick out the top of the tower. We took advantage of the 22′ mast and installed the main rotator down the tower in the second section from the top. This has several advantages including:

• The rotator is easier to reach and work on
• The rotator control cables are shorter
• The mast cushions the torque load on the antennas when the rotators start or stop
• We increase the amount of the mast that is above the tower in the future without replacing it.

We are turning our attention to final preparations for our ISS Crew Contact in December. Once that is done, we’ll spend some more time to complete our new tower.

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