Building a Ham Radio Tower, First Steps - in California 

Finally, a proper tower slab that rises above the ground and has been finished off to a correct standard!!!

You talked about the power of Lighting. I live in Florida, Lighting is very common. I have seen 2 ground rods about 6 to 8 feet apart that had 40 volts between them. One had taken a lighting hit and we have sandy soil and when you heat sand hot enough it makes Glass! The ground rod had glass around it. This is why they want the ground rods wired together with heavy wire. Hope you have a lot of fun! 73 W4DES

I’m in KY. I do what I want on my land. I have a “blanket permit”. But, still do things safely and correctly. Best management practices.

Wow! All that you had to go through with legal, weather, and expense, you have done one amazing job! Any towers that I have put up here in Michigan, abit rural, we had to do nothing like what you had to go though. We just put them up and they all have been up for years, one up to 72', and all still standing! Please keep the story going until completion. 73, Karl

Welcome to CA... I got my 60' Rohn self support. Distributer to me via truck. Had my concrete guy to pour my pad and rebar via mfg recommendations. Getting a local Land mobile climber put it up with antenna. No County, gvt permission...

Thanks for putting this video together! My condolences that you spent so much money on permits and inspections, BUT Kudos for the fact that you did it right. I have seen several 20-40' RHON 25s that people just poke in the ground. Some are still standing, and some have caused damage and fatalities. Thank you for doing it right.

A lot of good takeaways from this. Thanks for posting.

Excellent presentation!

I loved you tower story it seams to me you had a lot to go through to get you a tower up, I hope you enjoy it for years to come . in South Carolina the main requirements are the concrete base and it has to be approximately 10 feet above your home and the closets home to you. Have a good one ,and 73 from Carl KN4RBJ

This is nice radio club

Good info! I'll be building a Rohn 40 this year in Alaska. I'm not in city limits so I'm hoping that I won't have as much red tape. I'm a structural superintendent and have 25+ years in the industry but this was a great presentation. Thank you !

Back in the 70s we did everything with no permits. I had a Moonraker antenna and use the talk side band on the flat.Every heavy winds I would have to do repairs to the antenna

great video

Thanks to being in California, this was 10 times more complicated than it needed to be. Should have been a disclaimer with the video-"not all states require an arm and a leg to get this done." Could be an immediate turn-off to people that don't know.

Thank you for your presentation. I am glad I do not live in a big city or in a big, populous state. N0QFT, Glen

enjoyed that

Great video, I loved all the information you shared. Yet, it has been a year and I think we would all love an update and some final pictures and how much did it help with your reach?

Cool

This is a normal practice in most all states so long as your property is in town. Most anyone out in the country is going to do whatever they want. You're going to have to pay for over-engineering on these sorts of practice to help remove liability to the city and anyone else involved where serious injury can occur. That's normal, and like it or not, the right way to do things. If you have an issue with that, move to the country and do whatever you want.

Good stuff but just my 5.6'x5.6'x8' deep concrete hole/pad was exactly $6,000 and that is for just the pad itself. That was $6,000 turn key from start to finish and im installing a US Tower TX-489MDPL. All in I'm going to be more than $60k, i understand were talking two different towers but alot of money today in 2023 for just the foundation pad.

Replaced an existing roof on my home, required a permit, and smoke and monoxide detectors. Also, roof materiel had to either be near white, or the entire attic would need to be insulated!

Thank God I live in Texas and not the People's Republic of California. We dig a hole 3x3x3 stick a tower section of Rohn25 in the middle and then pour in a cubic yard of concrete. No wet stamp required

Great video! I am curious to know what performance difference there is vs the antenna system you were using before the tower.

The fight of every radio enthusiast. Towers.

Why more complicated In that county in CA? No. 1. Earthquakes. He built his tower near several active earthquake faults. No. 2 High winds. Lots of high winds in the area. So much so that wind generators are erected in the area. His design has no guy wires to support the tower so a big, expensive, engineered foundation is required so it stays up in a storm that he showed flooded the hole and turned the soil to mush. I other counties in CA im sure you can get it done for cheeper. But $6000 for that part of CA is very reasonable.

Which is why I live almost in the middle of nowhere and don't go through all this fuss in California. What I did instead was document every phase of the tower construction with photographs. I met all the engineering standards. It's not like they had a patrol driving around town looking for unpermitted amateur radio towers. Unfortunate if I had to pull it out and do it all over again. I would have been quite unhappy since it cost me over $10,000 to put up a 65-foot tower with over spec 3200 PSI cement in a 6x6x6 Cube and a SteppIR on top. Wrong thinking on my part. I should have protected my $10K investment by spending $310.

I have a question about your mast, using the heights you listed: 38' tower height, 40' Mosley 3 el beam, 46' 6M beam and 52' 2M vertical, is your mast height 15'? Or is it taller? Curious what mast height US tower recommended for your configuration? 73 N7TWP

What city is this? We have towers all over the city at 60 ft. We don’t ask the inspector jack.

I live in Wyoming. I have to deal with high winds. I hope it won’t be that expensive for foundation.

Concrete weighs about 140-150 pounds per cubic ft. A 6x6x6 chunk of concrete weighs 30,240 to 32,400 pounds.

good ol' Kalifornia

You can make this as complicated as you want, or in this case, they want

In rural Alabama you can do anything you want. Why would anyone live in a hell hole like CA? There is no high paying job I would take to live there 5 minutes. All my in-laws have fled to TX and AL and love it.

Cook stove for get the left coast

how much did California rock you for the two 20' poles holding up the dipoles? here in Virginia with a bunch of (southern engineers) friends, three or four pickup trucks loads of (home dopie) quickrete and plenty of beer... your tower would have been up and working the first weekend after it arrived.

Good grief, what a bureaucratic nightmare. It's a wonder Kuliforniya hasn't banned ham radio towers altogether because a bird may crash into one.

ok so all well and good. you live down in the mud flats. i live up in the hills of what is know as "the gold country" lots of hard rock. one almost needs diamante to dig a hole to plant a flower. how does this change the hole standards? possible to just dig into the rock, (aka remove all dirt) and add a bit to the square? a friend had his back yard dug out (everything here is sloped) and the crew used a crawlers hyd jack hammer... not the little guy, but a full sized unit as it also loaded up the dump truck.

Terrific presentation! I just can't understand why anyone would want to live there. Too much pELOSI in the air

California is so regulated it’s ridiculous. From taxes to just engineering money. Most counties in other states don’t even need any building permits. Glad I moved that that state.

I have a big steel tower with an old antenna on it. Free to anyone who wants to wrestle it down. I have a video of it, if anyone is interested.

I have a California seal and I used to work for ROHN. ROHN did not do ham radio tower sealing. We also did not like California and we would charge $5000 for towers in California that needed sealing. Do not weld rebar unless it is weldable grade rebar. It can snap off. A615 rebar, is junk steel and not weldable.

Some ham radio operators take the hobby a little too seriously. Sometimes they forget it's a amateur radio hobby. They want to feel like they're wearing big boy pants when they put up a tower like that. Lol!

The 45 degree angle is actually the grout after the tower is in place and not the concrete. After the rain and the new larger hole the rebar is no longer the required 3" from the edge. You're lucky the inspector didn't pick up on that.

Here in southwest Pennsylvania. I’m putting up a US Tower TX-455. 55’ . It requires a concrete base 36”x36”x75” deep. NO Permit needed. Even if the county or township required it. Screw them. California is to strict on everything.

thats what you get for living in California

what state is this

Where is part 2

How do you figure six bags of concrete is 6,000 lb

CALIFORNIA !🤣🤣🤣🤣

Thank you for the video. I am putting up a tower in Fresno county. May I contact you if I have any questions. Great job... Ray kb6lqv

Your ground rods need be 16ft apert from each other and run a link ground to all three

Pack of wolves on my land plus gates

My god. Why would anyone choose to live in California? Wow! I could put up a 100 foot tower in my backyard with duct tape without even making a phone call.

Good presentation, sorry you have to live under such oppressive regimes. Not meaning to be a smart a.. I'm glad I live in Tennessee.

One thing that's ironic about California is that it has its own codified prb-1 that was signed into law in July 2004 I Believe by then Governor Gray Davis. It echoed the national prb-1. But yet they make us jump through hoops, charge us unreasonable fees, and then there are still cities that refused to accept California's prb-1. They fight it vigorously citing the fact they believe that it drops property values in their City. What's even sadder is that some ham radio operators have acquiesced to government regulation that requires no regulation Beyond California's prb-1. One particular City allows you to ground mount a 2-meter antenna. The top of the antenna cannot be more than 20 ft above ground. The Hamm's considered it a win.

5:48 You think the engineer would have known this. smh

FYI the Federal regulations override any local restrictions. Many have easily won against the local prohibitions and BS. As long as you have a HAM license you're covered and Federal overrides local.

30 acres of bamboo land ki4 land antenna every where 😅

I think it was cheaper to move out of Kommiefornia.

A lot of good reasons not to live in California! Brenda’s husband, JohnBoyUtah KJ7TBR 🎙📡🎙🎙

I was nauseated with the bureaucratic red tape and tyranny you had to go through...I would NEVER go through this.

Mafia.

Hide away antenna

I installed a 72 foot tower in my yard. I didnt call anyone or get any permits or stamps or anything else. I had my next door neighbor bring his backhoe dig a hole, framed it, called a cement company, put in cage, had them pour cement, built and installed my 72 foot tower. No problems. Thank goodness I dont live in a communist country like this guy does. I live in Georgia USA. When my tax guy came out for his yearly check he saw the tower asked what if it was a fm or am tower I said it was a ham radio tower. He said ok no problem. Had it been a fm or am tower they would tax me for it and would need permits etc. Ham radio no issues no problem.

I would move out of California if I were you their aint no sense in all this for a tower.

My final inspection will require that I have carbon monoxide and smoke detectors in my home. Yes, I’m not kidding! Another one of CA laws.

California, so sad!!

Just move. Seriously. Those of us who live in the USA are constantly perplexed as to why good people would live in the regulatory, micro-managed s***hole called California. I like visiting but no way I’d put myself through that crap-while paying outrageous taxes-as a resident.

is this in communist California?

wow i would hate to live in communist california...

Jed moved away from that stink hole flat Texas land good soil construction put a camper tolit shed hose solar rohombic wire mesh antenna plastic t post speakers wire antenna just hit us man blah

Fist step to building a tower in California: move out of California....

There’s your first mistake, living in the People’s Republic of Commiefornia.

Who would want to live in that liberal run mess ! Get out while you can ! Here in Indiana you do not even have to get a building permit in my county to put up a tower . My Rhône HDBX 85 took 10 yards and a cage of rebar that I cut and welded myself then painted with cold gal 4500 PSI concrete no inspection no permits