Ham Radio Tower on Homestead Easy DIY 

This isn't DIY. This is DI with a bunch of other people.

Poured the base of my 68' guyed tower 31 years ago! No shale, midwest clay! Four foot round, 5ft deep Rohn 25 .... Brought back some good memories! 73 ..... (Your finish work is way better than mine!!)

Had 80' of Rohn 25 with a Mosley classic 33 before I moved! Now a 40' tilt Alumna tower. Had to make climbing a thing of the past, it got old like me. Fine video Dirt Boss, poured a dozen or more bases for fellow Amateurs. A great hobby for the wealthy.

We've seen those ads, "No Job Too Big or SMALL"! This job is all but SMALL because 48 FEET is not small when sticking its head up to greet what Mother Nature may have in store. That's why people call the best - The BIG GUY - with custom made forms built on site. Thank you for sharing this 'important' project with us and sorry about cutting your forms. Good job! Sonny (CT)

Good stuff. Got my General license, now working on the Amateur Extra, just to prove to myself really. Didn't have a background in electronics, electricity, frequencies, propagation or anything ham radio related. I had to work hard and study.

The ambient music at 8:08 took me to another consciousness -- Really great!

I don't think the wind will matter too much on that one.

Different kind of pour right there, something new ya know, that's cool, it won't be goin no where that's for sure, thanks for sharing mike.

Nice and instructional. Thanks.

GOOD JOB nice to see people who know and do

Me personally, I would have drove an 8-foot grounding rod into the ground and grounded the tower to it before pouring the concrete. But that is just my preference.

That turned out great, nice job guys 👍

Thats some serious concrete works.That tower aint going nowhere

Really nice job! That's a massive block of concrete, wouldn't have thought it by just looking at the hole you dug.

Super job

Cool project! You get into a little bit of everything. Keep up the good work

NIcely done Mike.

Great job..... Have a great weekend.

Looking good

Very similar to my tower build👍

Love your work dirt boss you make finishing concrete look easy peasy lol

Very nice work!!

Nice!

Only problem with these tbx towers are they don’t call for any antenna with a medium wind load. Small antennas only. Good job on the pad

Nice job!

Man that's big counter weight great job , glad to see y'all doing ok take care stay safe god bless

Good job!! I know it was a hot one that day ☀️🥰

Nice job 👍

First time I've seen the boss work harder than the help in a good long while.

I ran a Concrete truck after I retired for about 12 years poured most likely a dozen Cell towers installations, this guy creates a lot of work that is not need. But he is making a video after all.

Nice job

Great job, but when dealing with concrete, it's essential to always incorporate steel reinforcements. This includes mesh at the top and bottom, lateral struts on the sides, and a steel spiral around the three pillars, spaced at 5 inches apart. Otherwise, over time, the concrete may crack.

Great seeing it held together during the pour. Nice small job and it should strip easy enough. Much better than trying to put a cable tower in all those trees.

I may have to win the lottery to do this, but hopefully one day I will put up a tower! Awesome for the owner!

It's a marvelous tower & thank you for sharing your project . I just wanted to mention that I would of driven an earth electrode rod into the base of the hole , it may of been a little tricky hence the rocks , but I'm sure with a little perseverance an electrode rod could of been drifted deep under ground with a 30mm connector cable from the earth electrode to the chassis of the tower .

Looks like you did a very good job and I’m sure it’ll work out fine so congratulations I can get the tower I used to have one years ago but not anymore I’m 86 years old and I’m not gonna be climbing any towels I got I got a nice dipolehustle of vertical God bless

Question: When is it important for poured tower foundations to have side contact with undisturbed dirt?

I did a Verizon cell tower site work on Duanesburg Churches rd yrs ago its nice to get away from new home sites once in a while nice job DB

Great video. Tremendous amount of effort and money just in the base. Crazy expensive!

Great channel, new subscriber from England.

Just wanted to say thank you for bringing us into your world, I appreciate how you explain the small details. Great job 👍!

No job too big or too small ! Always interesting great content.

When I put mine up that is a Rhône HDBX mine is 85 foot I put a lot more steel in mine and welded all together with the stubs then painted it up all good with cold galvanizing. It took 8 yards of 4500 mix I used the vibrator on it too the guy is right about grounding the tower not thru the legs I have seen TV towers with the base blown to hell by a lightning strike I fab a lot of brackets for towers in my shop saw this in person just before they dropped it and to have me salvage any useable parts I had built for it . On mine I put a lighting rod on one leg and grounded that one Thu a copper rod 8 feet long and used copper webbing to connect it all I put stand offs on the other two legs and mounted all the air fiber radios on it for the internet service . It’s taken that I know of a dozen good hits with no base damage or radios cooked ! It’s rated at 90 MPH consistently with a inch of ice on it with the current wind load .

We poured somewhere between 500/600 footings like that for a giant warehouse , they varied from 8x8-11x11-13x13 all 5’ tall , everyday was stripping day before pours, forming/kicking, pouring and repeat

You should never form up the outside of the tower base. The concrete should be poured against undisturbed soil for maximum strength. I only formed up the top six inches of my 64 foot freestanding Trylon tower to make a neat triangle appearance on the very top.

Good stuff Boss... Hey JJ Waddup..

Watch it Mike that tower work becomes addictive and it pays well! Lol nice job. I was hoping you weren’t going to backfill your forms. Smart man 👍🏻

I remember putting in a BX tower , dug the base by hand in Jan - feb in northern Ohio , your way looks much easier !

Wow using the backhoe, that’s different. Never saw a pad that thick. Interesting video.

I take it your around the Albany NY area seeing the Clemente/Latham truck

I have 4 similar tower footings. I never bothered to use forms except above ground where it shows. I thought it wiuld be stronger to use undisturbed soil for the in ground part of the form. BTW: It is GUY Wires, not guide wires. DE K4OM

Humm , I may need to redo mine, 😂 I didn’t put that much weight in the bottom. Nice job boss

Damn, He must be putting up a hell of a lot of aluminum for that much concrete.

I wonder if your helper knows the great education he's getting working aside of you. You never seemed daunted by the jobs you get. I especially like it when you jumped in the hole to spread the mud. Now if you could only grow a third arm and hand to hold the camera.

I want to be one of "your people"

Shoot I thought it was gonna be like a hundred and some thousand feet the way that base was looking

now i know what i need to know

I'm working on getting my HAM license and would love to see what you've done with this and have hooked up. Pretty cool you installed a big tower on your property!

Never seen the base for a tower. NYC skyscraper can be built on that. Help him build the tower for fun!

love the videos. It seemed like your helper on this one did alot of standing around and not alot of working.

Thanks to god my Antenna is in the rooftop of 6 FL building. Like 60 feet , I think.

mike, ever thought about getting a stamp made with tri county in it to imprint the concrete you pour? nice work as usual.

I woulda had the blocks in the bottom vertical. There's air gaps inside the blocks with no concrete in them.. The blocks are stronger vertical. That's the way they are designed, to block up in vertical position.

Got a bunch of hours in a 310G from working at a scout camp up near Lake George, love that thing.

I see you know how to play with those sticks lol 😛

4:01 dee's nuts. LOL!

We have a 1500 ft tower in our yard

Where did you come up with the specs for the pad? I’m picking up a used 50’ tower next week, and we’re far enough out that permitting is not required, but I still want to do the installation right/safe. I need to fab up a tilt over base and I’ll raise and lower it with a winch. I just need to find some data sheet for specs.

Look at Madman doing the technical dig. Next week hell be towing his komatsu on the moon. Space force contractor. C'mon back

will there be 3 guide wire poles ???

4:01

How long do you leave the forms in place before you strip them on a pour that size?

What mix did you use DB?

What is the height of the tower going on the base encased in concrete?

Are you required to call and have utilities marked before digging?

Where is the video where you directed it?

Can you get HBO on that thing ???

Who does this kind of work in North Georgia?

Why use forms rather than making it perfectly square and pouring onto virgin soil? Wouldn’t that make it more stable?

Nice tower set up I have no idea what type of steel used but I would have used some kind of paint or under coating on the legs and the cement slab would have a angle for water run off. but it's a nice tower you have there I hope it will last you for years! de..N3WYZ

Did you need a crane?

Good job, too bad the ham didn't think about a conduit for ground radials and maybe even coax cables. (I'm sure this tower will blow over due to your fine work)

dUMB QUESTION HERE : shouldn't that hole be dug as tight as possible so that when the concrete is poured, it's going into a COMPACTED HOLE ? specially the walls ?

How long does it take for that much concrete to cure/setup enough to support a 48’ tower?

Why use the form?

A B T

All of that for a 50ft twr?

I was okay with it until the cement truck showed up. you're definitely not that off grid if the cement truck is within driving distance... lol

Only 48' ??? That's enough concrete for 148' !

Are you going to video while you are erecting the tower. All you need is a gin pole and a safety belt and a few wrenches.

des nots

JJ needs to learn how to look busy.

Rusty Rebar Concrete Company

I'd like to shit myself when you started pouring and that block moved.

That little tin tower is a waste of money.should have got a real tower heavy duty.that tin will lay over first big snow..ham professionally did that..

Pas assez de fer dans votre semelle

Your going to much more expense than nessarry-!!!!

OMG what a bull shit work !!!