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Man Builds 60-foot Tower to Get Highspeed Access

Posted by Zonk on from the overcoming-obstacles dept.

Matt Russell writes "A church was blocking the only high speed signal in town, so he decided he needed to go higher. This is the story of one man's quest to build a 60-foot reception tower in his yard and retire his modem once and for all." From the article: "Well, if you want to have a tower, you need to find one. Buying a new tower is not a good idea, since there are plenty of used ones. In my case, I was in need of a tower that was at least 50', which would cost around $1,000 USD for a new one. The way I searched was pretty simple. I spread the word around town that I was looking for one, and I drove around to see if there was a house with an old TV tower or something like that. If a 30' tower would be enough for you, go to a small town and look for TV tower. If you find one that looks to be in good shape, just go knock on the door and ask if you can buy it. At least 90% of people don't use them anymore, so it's a good place to start! "

5 of 348 comments (clear)

  1. A Weather Balloon Is Cheaper (and Portable) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    Use a weather balloon. It's cheaper and, as long as it's tied down, legal.

    And you can sell ad space to pay for it!

  2. No kidding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    WTF is news about this? Ham operators have been installing 60' towers in their back yards for oh, about 100 years now. I totally don't get it.

  3. Re:how about bartering for access to the tower by fm6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That says something about small-town versus big-town life. This guy couldn't get the church to install a small repeater in their belfry, but nobody cares if he has a 60' tower on his property. In the big city, churches vie with each other to put transmitters in their towers (nice source of revenue), but a homeowner would never get a 60' tower past the zoning board, the local homeowner's assocation, the neighbors concerned about property values...

  4. What is exactly so dangerous? by ModernGeek · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Other than the whole lightning thing, what can really happen other than crushing yourself or breaking your arm by not having friends help you move it around? Sure, you can fall and stuff, but it seems like it shouldn't be that hard to erect and support a tower. I guess if you really were scared of the tower, you could just attach the antenna to the top of a tree that goes straight up.

    --
    Sig: I stole this sig.
  5. Seriously stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    1. 60' is high enough that if you fall, you will probably die.
    2. Towers are not toys. 60' might not seem tall, don't climb it with out the right safety gear.
    3. If you don't know anything about the tower, don't climb it. It could fall. Even if your neighbor, the old ham, says it is safe when he climbed it 10 years ago.
    4. you are talking serious feedline loss at 2.4 GHz. I hope he put the AP up on top. If it breaks in the middle of winter. Are you really going to want to fix it?
    5. If you put the AP at the top, you have to get power to it. Running AC up a tower is unsafe and is probably a local code violation.

    Don't do this at home boys. Towers are serious business. If you don't know who Rohn is or don't know how to tension a guy wire, hire a professional.