Sounds like good advice Jase88!

My previous tower was simply buried in the ground for about 30 years. I replaced it though with a newer used one, as the old one was rusted badly from top to bottom, and I was not comfortable climbing it.

Okay then, any reco's about where to get some newer/used tower sections?

Please remember that the Rules of the Forum (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=3746) require us to discuss availability and pricing of OTA Gear in these threads:

OTA: BC & Western Canada Parts, Sales, Service, Installers (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=51079)

OTA: Ontario Parts, Sales, Service, Installers (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=23984)

OTA: Quebec & Atlantic Canada Parts, Sales, Service, Installers (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=51078)

OTA: On-Line Parts, Sales (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=78265)

and of course just a reminder to check with our Official OTA Forum Sponsor too: Save And Replay (http://saveandreplay.com)

cheers :)

Jakeman3,

I decided to call Winegard about the wind loading on the HD8200U antenna. Tech support told me it has 270 square inches, or just under 2 square feet. [288"]

You should not have any wind problems, and I feel better knowing now too. ;)

Thanks for looking into that...

you're tower is about two feet in the ground? I bought the base plate and am planning on using spikes.. It's good with me because I can have those two feet above ground.

My question for you is about grounding.. Are you not doing anything specific to better ground your tower? or the tower itself enough?

My old tower had been in the same spot for over 25 years, and was not grounded other than the 2 feet below grade.

I installed this one the same way last year. Adding a proper ground is at the top of my to-do list, once the weather gets a bit better.

More info about grounding can be found here. http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=62265

I've installed a tubular tower in a concrete base about 15 years ago. Still standing right at this time. No rust or wear to the tower base. Works great.:D

What do people here think about joining two masts together using a swagged mast?

I am looking at using a sloped roof mount similar to the one shown below to let me put the VHF antennas on the back side of the house and out of view from the street. Since the mast is only 5' long and I want to put a 5Y6S (http://www.wade-antenna.com/Wade/cutchannel.pdf) and a small VHF-HI antenna on it, I am not sure if they will fit. Properly the 5Y6S should be on the bottom, but because of its size I can't really have it much less than 5' above the base. I also figure the antennas should be 3-4 feet apart.

http://www.skywalker.com/images/thumbs/SKY32809t.jpg http://www.channelmasterstore.com/v/vspfiles/photos/CM-1805-2T.jpg

One idea is to use a mast that is swagged at one end (like the one above) so that it can slide inside the mast of the sloped roof mount. My concerns are:

How strong is this?
Will it swivel in the wind?
Could the upper mast pop out with an up draft?


Does anyone have any experience doing this? Any other ideas?

I think you could make your own tripod, based on a longer than 5 ft mast. Depending on the height you may have to consider guy wires for additional support.
If I recall correctly some people here made their own slope tripod, yours would only have a longer base mast than theirs

I am going to put up an new OTA system with a new mast, rg6 cable, rotor, cm4228hd and a preamp.
Do I need a ground spike on my mast to protect it from lightning and surges?

robman50, everything you will ever need to know about grounding your OTA gear is in the following thread:

Grounding Info & Standards: OTA/Dish/CATV/Telecom (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=62265)

so we won't cover it here in this thread.

I have one of the older CM4221 antennas that I have had in my attic for several years propped up on the roof truss. I am finally getting around to move it outside. I bought one of the Winegard J poles at S&R but attaching the antenna to the pole is not as straightforwad as I had hoped.

My 4221 came with some square U bolts for mounting but they are not long enough to use with the J pole as I guess they were designed for a smaller diameter J pole pipe. I guess one option is to get longer U bolts but where do you get such U bolts and I think they would have to be a very specific size to fit through the holes on the 4221 - I am not sure that you could use rounded U bolts - I would likely need square ones. I am guessing that this isn't something you could find at the Depot or CanTire. Does anyone know of a place, preferably in Scarborough, where you can get all kinds of U bolts like this?

Another option would be to get the 12 inch pipe adapter at S&R. It says this converts a 1.65" to 2". Would 1.65" be the correct diameter for my 4221?

And another option I am thinking of is to just slide the antenna into the mount and then use large wood screws that go through the pre-drilled holes in the J-pole and tighten it enough so that the screw or screws hold the antenna securely. Is there anything wrong with doing this?

A variation on the last method is to actually drill a hole through the vertical pipe that is part of the antenna and put the screw into this hole. But that would make it hard to fine tune the direction I am pointing in. Or I could even drill a hole straight through the antenna pipe and then put a bolt through it.

Or does anyone else have a better idea?

roger, i found what i'm referring to about people who did their own tripod. I knew I saw it before and now i stumbled upon it. They are posts #218 to #233.

I'd use the same idea as the electrocutioner's pics, but putting a 10 foot post (or whatever you feel is the right height) through it and secure the post at the base with an L, making this a quadripod.

Thanks. I remember seeing those posts way back. If I were to go that route, I would probably buy the sloped roof mount and replace the 5' mast with a longer one. Either that or make my own sloped roof mount with longer braces that reach higher on the mast.

I got a scare the other day when I went up on the roof and mounted a small UHF Yagi on the Tower.

As soon as I touched it,it moved! Aigh!

I note that some of the bolts on the "V" bracket can't be tightened anymore.

Note: This tower was here before we came 16 yrs ago,so it's old and rusty.

While the best idea might be to have it(40 ft) taken down(anybody ever used "Ontario Tower Removal?"),I figure since we can't afford it right now,at least we should try and secure it,even if for one more year.

What about removing the bolts and drilling new holes(and filling in the old ones) and if so,what size drill bit(I don't have a cordless,so I'd have to get someone else to do it)?

Anybody ever had a scenario like this?

Just to clarify, you say the tower seems fine but the lag bolts holding the tower's brackets to the house are loose, right? If that's the case, then yes you can redrill the holes a bit larger with a hammer-drill and then pound in some inserts to take larger bolts. You might need to redrill the brackets to take the bigger lag bolts too. Having said all that, it would be very wise to inspect the area being bolted onto first to see if the building material (brick, mortar, wood, etc.) has been internally damaged over the years. Attaching new bolts to a damaged structure is no way to fix things. ;)

Is that what you meant, itpro007ca?

Oh yes...that "v" section. I thought he was referring to the top section of the tower, which can form a "v" towards the top. That makes better sense....

Yes, that's definitely fixable.

Okay, it's pretty clear to me now that I have become an OTA hobbyist. As such, I am now considering putting up an old-school tower behind my house --- much like the one I, unfortunately, had removed from my house when I bought it six years ago (before I knew about OTA). Doh!

My house is a semi-detached. There is only one place where the tower can go -- in the back yard. Front has electric wires, between the houses is a mutual driveway, leaving only the back.

Trouble is there is no ground to dig into in the back. My house was built in 1931. Since then an addition was built on to the back so the basement's area is larger than the house's. So to put up a tower that will be braced by the house at the top by the roof, the base of the tower has to be on the cement that is in fact the "roof" of the basement.

I believe the old tower was welded to a base-plate of some sort and perhaps lag-screwed into the cement. I didn't pay much attention back then.

Can I still get a base-plate for this purpose?

Is it hard to do this job oneself?

I would need the baseplate + 20 feet of tower + a 10-foot top-portion + mast + antenna. FYI I'm thinking a Winegard HD7697P with a rotor for dxing.

If I'm going to climb this thing, what is the proper safety gear and where might I get it?

If the concrete slab is thick and strong a baseplate is the way to go:

buy galvanized lag screws and anchors
rent a hammer drill and a cement bit sized to suit the anchors
tie a plumb-bob from the centre of the roof bracket and dangle it down to the cement slab
mark where the centre of the baseplate must be located
place the baseplate onto the concrete and mark where the holes need to be drilled
drill the holes deep enough to seat the anchors level with the surface
sink the anchors into the holes with a sledge hammer, using a piece of wood in between to prevent damage to them
attach the baseplate with the lag screws
put up your towerIf you're unsure of the concrete slab's strength you could either pour another couple of inches of concrete on top and let it cure for a couple of weeks, or get a custom baseplate made at a local machine shop that will spread the downward force much wider on the slab. Cost should not be much.

In your case I'd pre-assemble two 10' tower sections on the ground and then install them onto the baseplate and roof bracket. Then I'd bring the top section and the antenna(s)/pole/other OTA gear up onto the roof and install the top section without any gear yet. After that I'd install the rotor onto a thrust bearing or baseplate, then I'd pre-assemble the antenna(s), preamp(s), ground brackets, etc. onto the pole and then install it all onto the top section.

Regarding safety harnesses, you can find them in tool stores or in catalogues. With all the forestry work in B.C. it is not hard to find them here in stores and I'm sure it's not hard in Ontario either. You want the kind that has lanyards with carabiners that allow you to clip above you first then unclip the one you've climbed above after that.

HWP, another thing to read first:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=892649&postcount=675