The Communicator Revisited - October 2012
Phase 3: Its a Tower!
Part 2 of my chronology in last month’s Communicator took us to the completion of the concrete pour. Since then I decided not to grout beneath the base plate, as grouting seemed likely to cause retention of moisture and possibly lead to corrosion; also, the leveling nuts would no longer be adjustable.

The hand winch was able to handle the lift easily as we slowly raised the tower to a vertical position [left] and bolted the 3rd leg. The leveling screws under the base plate were adjusted to get the tower perfectly plumb [right]. For the next week, I did not raise the tower higher, but just sat back and admired it before eventually lowering it to the ground once again. I installed a mast and rotator – a Ham III – half way up the top-most section of tower, and connected an 8-conductor cable to both rotator and controller. After testing to see if the mast rotated as it should (it did), I attached my 2m/440 vertical to the mast and once again raised the tower to a vertical position.
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Since then I have cranked up the tower sections to a height of about 35 ft. at which height it has remained for the last 2 weeks to “introduce it to the neighbours”. So far, there has been no sign of the lynch mob!

~ John VA7XB
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