Man Builds 60-foot Tower to Get Highspeed Access

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! "

Comments

hmm

[eobanb]

I'm wondering what sort of internet access this actually is. Wi-Fi? Anyway, this seems a little silly; it seems like he could run some co-ax and position a smaller antenna so that it's not being obscured by the church. Or how about just asking the church if he can put a small antenna in their steeple and re-broadcast it (either in its original form or with wi-fi or something)? I'm sure they'd be fine with that. I'd only put a tower up like this if it came with other benefits (maybe if I decided to put a TV and radio antenna on it also).

better have a mondo surge protector ...

[Wansu]

I'm talking about those big honkin' surge protectors like the power company uses that attach to a ground stake and the coax feedline runs through it. He also better have a good quality grounding system. All towers get hit by lightning sooner or later. Yessir. The nail that sticks up gets pounded.