Tilting HAM Radio Antenna Tower - Part 1

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Tilting HAM radio antenna tower. A brief video describing the overall construction of a tilting 56' HAM radio antenna tower that I built. The tip of the Comet GP6 is at 80'. A Cushcraft 13B2 is at approximately 70', a Cuscfart A50-5S is at 65" (not shown in this video), a Hygain Explorer 14 (with 40m) at 60', and an Alpha Delta DXA at 55'.

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7 апр 2019

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Комментарии : 108

@donmccormick856 2 года назад

Marc that is the most incredible tower system I have ever seen. Very well built and fantastic explanation of how it all works together.

@marcinmetcalfe595 2 года назад

Thanks Don. It gets used every summer as I add new antennas and adjust others. I really wish everyone had one. This really was a fun project to build. Take care.

@edwardnemec7611 2 года назад

After watching videos on tilting towers I decided to install my used antenna tower I bought at a garage sale from a Ham guy. I use a roller assembly on my 1 1/2 story roof to reach over to the winch on my van. Just had it down for a new TV preamp. Made the base hinged 3/8 plate and used 4 corner 3/4'' SS threaded rods in a 30 bag concreate base. Thanks for the nice video.

@nelsonwalker7105 3 года назад

what a nice shop and very professional workmanship

@brianshanahan3878 4 года назад

WOW! Excellent design and workmanship! Plus the video coverage and the drone footage is priceless! BRAVO!!!

@marcinmetcalfe595 4 года назад

Thanks for your comments Brian. I tried to make a video that would be quick to watch and informative. Part three should be up next week. Take care. Marc.

@BBMCLM 3 года назад

Great explanation of your tilt tower plate. Professional looking install!! Thanks for the video.

@marcinmetcalfe595 3 года назад

Thanks for your comments. I am happy that you enjoyed it. I get so much enjoyment watching others on RU-vid that I am happy that I can give back a bit.

@michaelzehrfeld7766 11 месяцев назад

Marc - this is really "heavy metal"! Compliments for your job.....very well done.....perfekt made!

@gingercat555 3 года назад

Great to see your technical skills along with your engineering ability ... GREAT WORK ... love your work shop that must be a great help in preparing for this installation ... your qth looks fantastic as well ... thanks for showing how its all done.

@marcinmetcalfe595 3 года назад

Thanks for your positive comments. Yes I am fortunate to have a workshop that makes this sort of project more enjoyable. Before moving to this home I used to do all my hobby fabrications in a small single car garage in a tiny home in a high density residential neighbourhood. Rural living has some advantages. Thanks again. Marc. VE3BOE

@XPFTP 4 года назад

shop , skill to use it , tower... respect. damn nice. have to say best setup ive seen on here in long time.. class act old man

@marcinmetcalfe595 4 года назад

Thanks XPFTP.

@muthafuhcka 3 года назад

Great informative video and what a quality, hinged tower install.

@marcinmetcalfe595 3 года назад

Thanks Ronald. I appreciate your positive feedback.

@daveengstrom9250 3 месяца назад

Thats quite a project. My hats off to you.

@bigalbert1598 2 года назад

Excellent construction

@RGC198 5 лет назад

Very impressive. Well done!!

@FABARMBOY 4 года назад

Excellent work!Professional work!Congrats.

@marcinmetcalfe595 3 года назад

Thanks Antonios. I tried to do my best. There are many things that can be improved but it has been working relatively well so far. I’m just so happy that I don’t have to climb that tower whenever I want to make any antenna changes. Marc VE3BOE

@rico1319 4 года назад

You are one smart guy! Job well done! Beautiful tower and Antennas! Also looks like you found an excellent spot to settle down! Beautiful workshop also!! Hope to work you Someday, best of 73‘s W5PN

@marcinmetcalfe595 3 года назад

Rico, thanks for your nice comments. Yes I am very fortunate to have found this nice place. I moved here about 10 years ago. I wasn’t a Ham when I moved here but I realized that it was a great location to start in this hobby. All the best to you. 73. VE3BOE

@geckoproductions4128 4 года назад

Very nice indeed. Well designed, well constructed, and very nice video too. Thanks and 73 de Mike N5RXP look forward to meeting you down the log.

@marcinmetcalfe595 4 года назад

Tanks for your comments.

@mostafaismail43 3 года назад

Amazing work

@DenisRule 5 лет назад

Nice setup Marc.

@marcinmetcalfe595 5 лет назад

Thanks Denis. It was a lot of fun putting it together. 73's.

@hammerdodger0 5 лет назад

Great install

@olivertaylor8788 3 года назад

Good design,,well built,,good job...nice..

@MikeRPrevost 4 года назад

Beautiful! I'm building something similar, but with a 33' x 5.5" diameter x 1/4" thick steel pole as a lifting point (back guyed). This pole can also support an antenna. I like the multiple attachment points to the tower. I'm using combination of 4x6x3/8" and 3x5x3/8" angle to make tilt base. No plate. Tilting a restored Rohn HDBX 48' tower that is about 90' from the house. It will support an old-model Mosely Pro 67A multi-band beam and a Comet GP9 VHF/UHF vertical. I have a 24x24x8" NEMA 3R box (room enough for maybe a remote antenna switch and other gizmos) with about 14x 1.5" EMT elbows coming out of the bottom. Cable trench will empty into a covered "pit" next to the box. EMT elbows will run through concrete into pit. 2x 4" PVC drain pipe will run between tower and basement shack. 2x 7/8" hardline and 3x 1/2" hardline coax runs with other control cables. Same size NEMA box on side of house. Waiting for part 3! Very interested in your antenna tilt plate -- I can make stuff, and don't really want to spend $700 on a premade one (but I haven't worked with aluminum before). I'm also interested in how you deal with your coax during tilt. Also interested in how you grounded and bonded things. Thanks for the videos!

@marcinmetcalfe595 4 года назад

Thanks for your comments Mike. I will get part three up during the next week. I will make sure to show some pictures of the coax at the tower hinge for you. Marc.

@dren2jdh544 3 года назад

I like the setup!

@builditsquare 8 месяцев назад

Nice job!

@nr3rful 4 года назад

Nice, wish I had the tools and knowledge.... and space.... to do the same. 👍

@SherwoodR631 Год назад

great video - thanks for sharing

@marcinmetcalfe595 Год назад

Thanks for watching!

@gabrielepalmas5694 Год назад

Bello!!!un bel lavoro!

@marcinmetcalfe595 Год назад

Grazie.

@brian.7966 3 года назад

great stuff.

@ronaldbutler4480 2 года назад

good work there guy

@franciscomontesdeoca5316 Год назад

Super job

@lemmiegower8975 4 года назад

Looking forward to the antenna tilt plate video

@joeearley3351 4 года назад

My God best I've ever seen.

@marcinmetcalfe595 3 года назад

Thanks Joe. Your making it hard for me to stay humble.lol. Marc VE3BOE

@BobBaillargeon 3 года назад

Nice work Marc! Didn't know there was another ham in Metcalfe. I'm located off Snake Island road at Swale Road. 73 de VE3MPG

@marcinmetcalfe595 3 года назад

Well now you know there is at least one more.lol. I’m across from the Metcalfe Golf course hidden in the trees. 73 from VE3BOE

@runner406 5 лет назад

Awesome

@BLUESKYS4EVE 3 года назад

Very cool.

@the11metersd.x.channel.55 6 месяцев назад

Fine business Sir. I am presently constructing a 50ft tower using the Rohns plans for a 45G tower on a tilt plate.. 11and a quarter inch , equilateral triangle.. The cost to order from Rohns , and ship to Thailand was ridiculous.. around 5000 Dollars.. Local build. with improvements 550 USD. No Brainer..Home brew Rocks..

@Turjak_art 3 года назад

freaky awesome!

@DJBlackhawk 4 года назад

Wow, beast of engineering! Excellent work! Puts my tilting tower to shame.. haha 73 DE KK4MND

@marcinmetcalfe595 4 года назад

Thanks for your encouragement David. Appreciate it.

@ericb9340 7 месяцев назад

hello, thanks for this vidéo, very nice work 👍

@marcinmetcalfe595 7 месяцев назад

Glad you enjoyed it. Happy holidays.

@ericb9340 7 месяцев назад

@marcinmetcalfe595 your video is very informative for me because I have a small tower (10m) that I want to make tiltable, happy holidays to .

@GavinFreedomLover Год назад

great video thanks

@marcinmetcalfe595 Год назад

Glad you enjoyed it

@marcinmetcalfe595 Год назад

Glad you enjoyed it

@dougkapounek9024 4 года назад

WOW !

@garrycullum3861 Месяц назад

Wow 👌🏻

@Wilf63 3 года назад

Great job on the tower and videos - thanks for sharing Marc! I have a few questions and wonder whether it would be possible to connect offline? Thanks & 73's de VE3WAS

@marcinmetcalfe595 3 года назад

You can reach me at my RAC email.

@patrickmckowen2999 2 года назад

Great idea 👍 You got the Wade HD -- I believe that it is rated 9 sq/ft wind load at the top. What is the estimated load you have on there? I was thinking of getting a that tower for a wind turbine? Also did not want to climb for servicing -- I did it when I was younger - now, no thanks. Cheers

@marcinmetcalfe595 2 года назад

I don’t recall exactly what the total wind loading was but I do recall using the free calculator at the DX Engineering website to do those calculations and then selecting the mast and tower accordingly.

@xavierkost9264 4 месяца назад

Hi Marc, I am building a 64ft tilt over with a DMX, your video is quite helpful. How did you come up with 12,000 winch? Is the 4" falling derrick thick enough? There appears to be a bit of a wow in it, perhaps its the video angle. How much does your tractor weigh? Thanks

@marcinmetcalfe595 4 месяца назад

Thanks for your positive comments. I calculated what the forces were throughout the system. I purchased this particular winch because it was on sale (lol) and because it was well within my lifting force requirements. No "wow" in the falling derrick but you should be aligned dead on centre with your cable as shown in my videos. Please make certain that you understand what I did at the 4:50 mark in the video. The forces transfer through the derrick by the use of a through fastener and NOT the metal thickness of the derrick. Also note the lateral guy-wires on the derrick. My tractor is a BX25. Note that during the lift and lowering sequence, the forces acting at the centre point of the bucket are not acting purely against the weight of the tractor, hence the extensive strapping to nearby trees (see part 3 of my series). Good luck.

@xavierkost9264 4 месяца назад

@@marcinmetcalfe595 Great job, what is the length of your falling derrick & how did you calculate the winch requirement? I would have thought 6000 lbs would have been plenty....I'm thinking of cost. I'm the same as you, I don't want to be going up & down my 64ft tower at my age. You did an amazing job btw, very pro....

@marcinmetcalfe595 4 месяца назад

@@xavierkost9264 Thanks for your comments. The falling derrick is 16’ long. Good luck with your project.

@michaelborron1060 4 года назад

What is the length of the falling derrick, you used to tilt up our antenna tower? Nice set up, super shop.

@marcinmetcalfe595 4 года назад

About 18 feet. Thanks for watching.

@ericksonflores361 3 года назад

This is so great.. Hope you can share your design. :)

@marcinmetcalfe595 3 года назад

Pretty much what you see is the design. There is nothing hidden that I didn’t show or describe in the video. With the weight of your expected finished tower and antennas, along with the height of your falling derrick, you should be able to calculate to cable loads. It’s essentially a first year engineering statics problem. The concrete base was built to the tower manufacturers specifications. The winching setup was based on the site conditions and what I had available to me as anchor points, and very unique to my site. Thanks for watching.

@rykhiemusicz897 3 года назад

What are the materials you used? The sizes? I have plan to built that design in my backyard. Thank you in advance

@marcinmetcalfe595 3 года назад

The base is made of 4” x 4” - 1/4” steel angle and 1/4” plates(4’ x 4’). All the rest of the parts including the hardware, rigging cables, tower reinforcements, anchor bolts,etc., were selected based on detailed load calculations specific to my tower and derick geometry. You’ll have to make your own calculations for your setup.

@OE8ZZZ 3 года назад

Hi Marc! I'm just building my new tower and I like the lifting mechanism. What about the tension of the three attachment lines? Is there something I have to pay attention? Is one of these lines looser? Thanks for your reply, 73 de Patrick - OE8ACT

@marcinmetcalfe595 3 года назад

You should do the calculations to determine the tension in the lines to ensure that you use the proper size cables. In my case, due to the offset on the hinge point of the falling derrick in relation to the tower, the three lines transfer the lifting loads from the shortest to the longest during the lift sequence. Look closely at the video. Thanks for watching.

@OE8ZZZ 3 года назад

@@marcinmetcalfe595 Thank you for your reply! 73

@jamescross4660 3 года назад

Marc, is your tower a DMX-56? Great project and nice documentation...thanks for sharing. James. VY2JGC

@marcinmetcalfe595 3 года назад

Thanks James. It is partially based on a DMX48 Heavy Duty.

@burakdemirci265 Год назад

what is the thickness of sheet metal used for hinges? and the diameter of screw used for mil?

@marcinmetcalfe595 Год назад

Everything is made of 1/4” thick steel 4” x 4” angle iron. I think the hinge bolts are 3/4” .

@caperguy2000 4 года назад

awesome job 73 de ve1dew

@LZ1SSA 2 года назад

Супер е станало

@brianshanahan3878 4 года назад

Water drainage for that base plate setup?

@marcinmetcalfe595 4 года назад

Hi Brian. I simply drilled some drainage holes at appropriate locations on the base plate. Thanks for your interest.

@tackanderson4270 5 месяцев назад

What I want to know is how did you keep the antenna flat and level while tilting. Seems to me it would spin around in anything not secured.

@marcinmetcalfe595 5 месяцев назад

If you look at part 1 closely you’ll see how the hinge for the beam works. The connection to the rotor stops it from rotating.

@MaximusAurelius1987 2 года назад

What’s the tallest tilting tower that is made? And what’s the model number?

@marcinmetcalfe595 2 года назад

I don’t know. You will have to Google that. I have seen pictures of some commercially made tilting and telescopic towers but I don’t know much about them other than I likely can’t afford them.

@VA3WZW 3 года назад

This was informative, very helpful. (A Sub., thumbs👍🏽) 73 Andr VA3WZW

@marcinmetcalfe595 3 года назад

Thanks for the feedback. I hope that you found the video fun to watch. 73 VE3BOE

@chandrakumar9411 Год назад

🎉👌👍

@gtb81. Год назад

how did you get the pieces to reinforce the bottom of the tower? also, is it a necessary component?

@marcinmetcalfe595 Год назад

Those reinforcement pieces are actually the base stubs that you connect to the bottom of the tower and they go into the concrete base. Instead of installing them from the base down and installed them from the base up to reinforce that bottom tower section as it is subjected to some greater loads. I’m really not able to comment on whether or not it’s absolutely necessary. I put them in for good measure since they came with the tower kit. I think it is a good idea to do it.

@gtb81. Год назад

@@marcinmetcalfe595 ah ok, I ask because I bought mine second hand and don't have them

@robertheintz8017 4 года назад

Why don't you use your tractor to raise/lower the tower?

@marcinmetcalfe595 3 года назад

I tried but the angles were wrong. Plus it was to much for my small BX25.

@theboogeyman826 5 месяцев назад

How do you calculate how much load is on the raising cable?

@marcinmetcalfe595 5 месяцев назад

Well that’s the key. Best to hire a qualified person to figure that out based on your particular tower and loading. All the best.

@theboogeyman826 5 месяцев назад

@@marcinmetcalfe595 did you just overkill on your setup?

@marcinmetcalfe595 5 месяцев назад

@@theboogeyman826 No. Fortunately I’m a qualified professional engineer. I was able to get all the calculations done for free. 😁

@theboogeyman826 5 месяцев назад

@@marcinmetcalfe595 believe it or not I havent been able to get any help on this matter. Maybe Enginners are not what I thought. I figured any structural engineer could figure this out for me.