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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! "
er, what? Wouldn't GPRS or something be a little more bang for buck ? (no, I didn't RTFA)
My name is coaxeus, and I approve this message. In fact, I think it is awesome.
In Scouts we used to lash wood together to build structures. A forty foot tower is not hard to build this way.
Man installs TV aerial
plans to install new mailbox and gutters next weekend
details at 11
I didn't see the protocol (was it wifi?) in the article, but why not ask the church to put a repeater in their tower in exchange for setting up their computer to access the same ISP?
Another case of over engineering the solution to the problem.
Man: Well I've always said, There's nothing an agnostic can't do if he really doesn't know whether he believes in anything or not.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
And if you have more money to spend get a Hazer system so you don't have to climb the tower to get your antennas to the top.
Personally, I'd have knocked down the church instead. Less practical, but infinitely more satisfying.
Oh no... it's the future.
It's dying already.... Coral cache
That's some impressive DIY.
However, in my country (the UK), you can't just slap up something like that without going through an extremely tedious planning consultation with the local authority - usually your city or district council. This is both expensive (all has to be nice and legal etc) and time consuming. If you put it up without planning, you can apply for retrospective planning permission, but if it's refused then you have to tear it down (or the men in suits come do it for you). Quite a deterrant to similar DIY projects.
What sort of approval (if any) is needed for this sort of thing stateside?
1. In the discussion over on Digg, it was noted that he was able to build this cheaper than most would because he had "connections."
2. To those asking if this is Wi-Fi, it could be what I have. I'm not sure what it is, but it operates on the 900MHz band (I know, my cordless phone destroys the internet). I have a UHF Yagi in the attic pointed at a tower at the elementary school 3 miles away. The signal barely makes it over a hill in front of my house to get it. But I'm not complaining, I get 1Mbps both ways (128kb uploads, 128kb downloads) with it and it's neither a telco nor a cable co.
I hate when the church does that
I saw he put a grounding line on the thing, and a ground rod. But Something that tall and close to an inhabited structure should really have a heavier line that goes right to the top. Lightning will fry that #6 conductor pretty fast, and then where will it want to run? Oh, by the way, he has thoughtfully provided a fortuitous conductor that leads directly into his computer! Two words, " lightning arrestor "
And I wasn't too thrilled with his weld quality either. Looks like it was showing rust in the picture. And the bottom plate looked like it would hold water, not shed it. Overall, I'm not sure I'd want it next to my home.
Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now, and let us slay him... and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
O.K., so I read this. The howto can be summarized thusly-
1: Have a Father in the building trades
2: "Dad, help!"
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
I built a solar powered repeater for my Internet access. Where is my cookie?!
http://cowmix.com/solar6/compressed/
Four whole pages with pictures, and NO PICTURE OF THE TOWER?
I want my $0 back.
so what happened in the next few weeks?
:)
(multiple choice questions)
A. The church was blown up in a terrorist attack.
B. The churche's tower was raised by 60 more feet to get the honest christ followers closer to their god.
C. Rogers finally started providing cable Internet at that location.
D. FBI came to the guy's house with various questions on the suspicious activity and took the tower as material proof from the possible crime scene.
or
E. A bunch of angry construction workers burned the house down for stealing all that cement, cement rings and the freaking tower?
---
Really, the story should've been called "A man finds a way to get a whole bunch of stuff for free and installs a tower in the meanwhile."
You can't handle the truth.
50 foot tower?
Pah!
He should'a installed a space elevator in his yard. Advantages: antenna can be positioned at any altitude, communications with access points, police, aliens, etc. rendered easy. Pays for itself from orbital launch fees. Can be covered with tasteful beanstalk for camouflage.
Aliens? Where's that nanotube hat of mine?
Really the only good way to dig a hole, actually.
I don't know what the number is in canada, but 800-dig-safe gets you to a office where the utilities will mark out your property. Works great and it's the law.
Although, I'm much more scared about his globby welding.
Yikes.
I think I need a new sig here.
Methinks you posted the wrong file:
File: Bangbus - Episode 53 - Ritta.mpg
I'll have to submit this to some of the ham radio boards. I bet those guys never thought of putting an antenna high in the air!
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
Methinks you posted the wrong file:
File: Bangbus - Episode 53 - Ritta.mpg
Whats really sad is that I recognize that one by name.
is in case his town is visited by an evil Circus.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Some random guy came over to our house about 5-6 years ago after my dad moved out and asked about our tower that my dad didn't bother to take with him. He told us that he'd take it to his house and check it out and make sure it still worked and give us a price etc. We haven't heard from him since. But anyways, he must be pretty lucky: I've been using this service for quite some time without any problem. Rain and storms do not affect the speed in any way I could notice. Our old antenna (not the one mentioned above) got owned by lightning.
I built a 62 foot tower in my yard to connect to buddy with high speed access. Just when we about to start his tower, they ran cable-internet done my road. I was pissed, yet happy at the same time. Still out about $800 though.
um...no.
;)
those tubes are defintely not six feet long if they're a metre in diameter.
Six feet is 1.8m - they're definitely not longer than they are wide.
It is actually entirely possible for those of us using metric to understand the relative sizes of legacy measurement systems.
Apparently it's not so easy the other way round
Advanced users are users too!
Getting high speed internet was the most challenging experience in my life. That guy needs a life!
where's all that Karma?
We built a 70ft tower to get a lawyer here in town on,
Sounds like an excellent use of it, too. Noose or cage?
-- Alastair
Yes, but who cares what you think? You live on a farm.
I kid, I kid. :-p
I live in a rural part of the country, and had to put up an 80ft tower to get crappy WiMAX connection.
So, WHERE'S MY SLASHDOT ARTICLE, BITCH?!
Shiny. Let's be bad guys.
I'm in a rural part of Ontario with no cable or DSL and several of us in this area have 50 foot towers so we can get high speed access. It's an expensive option, but if nothing else is available, you do what you have to do.
Geeks are more hams every day with their antenna farms.
Try reading about tower review, or join in on Tower Talk.
Better yet, get a ham license. The technician test isn't even that hard.
Good old boys should sometimes stay inside watching tv, then get up and go to the bar.
The new splash of paint he put on was indeed absolutely mandatory - corrosion Control is a big deal in towers. You must grind off all the rust you can find, and place a good sealing paint meant for this purpose on it, completely cover everything. Use galvanized bolts, and preferably inspect them occasionally. I know its hard at home, but it should be done at least every few years so that you don't end up with a tower section in your living room.
Lightning rods....Lightning rods don't keep your tower from being hit. In fact they increase the likelyhood of them getting hit as it brings 'the ground' closer to the cloud that is making the big booms. The point of a lighting rod is to provide a path of least resistance for all those lightning strikes so that it goes to ground through the damn rod instead of through your computer equipment.
Erg. Simpletons.
Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey Him? Surely this computer must submit also!
I want you slobbering wireless fanboys to listen carefully.
Used towers are dangerous. You can get stitches and broken bones handling one 10' section of new Rohn 25 if you don't have competent help. A fall from 6' can be fatal, a 'lucky' fall from 20' is still going to leave you with a lifetime of disability. Towers are not a permanent fixture. Even with care they rust and they get metal fatigue if they're not properly braced or guyed. No professional will reuse tower components without a careful visual inspection and most will just say no unless its the smallest cross section segments like Rohn 25 (12" face) and they're not going back up in a large configuration.
If you get it down and home with all of your toes and fingers intact you've still got to get it erected. A proper base is an art - see a prebankruptcy Rohn catalog for details. You need to calculate the wind load for the size of antenna you'll use and make sure you're using appropriate guying or bracing for the given load.
The tallest building I've ever had to service was 634'. The tallest facility I've ever had to manage was 485'. The tallest tower I've ever personally climbed was 300'. The tallest I've ever specified myself and helped install was 60'. The tallest water tower I've ever worked was 135'. The most I've done in the last year was an install at 55' on a 185' Penrod 30. The only experience I don't have is dealing with cylindrical cellular type towers.
Stating my experience should shut down the cantenna artists who just became tower recycling gurus by reading that article twice, but I'm at a loss as to how to say this so that I won't get someone saying "Aren't you special?". I am special in the scheme of Slashdot, because I talk about things I do rather than things I fantasize about doing.
So much for my resolution to never, ever respond here again.
I am very easy to get along with, but I don't have time to waste being nice to people who are being stupid. -Theo
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.
Just another example of how religion gets in the way of technology...
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
we do this on a regular basis for customers with lots of foliage and who are desperate to get broadband. this is actually very common.
we found that it's cheaper and safer to have someone (e.g your power company) plant a wooden pole. we've had customers that buried a 60 ft (and a couple of times 70-ft) wooden pole 10 feet in the ground, with some concrete around it, and they've never moved since. you can get a set of pegs to do about 3-4 poles for around 90 bucks, with a tool to drive them in. it helps if you know what you're doing and have some climbing experience, of course.
we also have a couple of customers that have guyed and non-guyed masts and tri-poles up to 70 ft.... people will do strange shit for high speed porn.
the worst part is having to do routine maintenance and realignments, just cause it's time consuming and wears you out.
another neat tower design is the kind that "breaks over" close to the ground, and has a counterweight. you can fold it over, install your gear, and straighten it back up.
--- sig moved for great justice.
There's a lot of damaging superstitions about lightning. If you're in a lightning-prone part of the country, try to get your information from someone who knows physics and electrical engineering. Your recommended solution should include a ground *field* surrounding the tower, low-inductance connections, attention to take-off angles, arrestors before the wiring goes into the house, and a fanatical campaign to eliminate potential ground loops. You know how you're supposed to keep your feet together if you're caught in the open during a lightning storm? If you have equipment grounded in different places, that's the same as moving your feet apart. Strke current trying to fight its way through sorta-conductive dirt may discover that your equipment is a shortcut.
You can manage a direct strike: operators of really tall towers get hundreds per year. But it requires a lot of attention to detail and a complete understand of the physics. For an application like this I'd suggest a disposable AP at the tower and no wiring going into the house.
When I needed a tower for my 40-meter 4 element beam, I managed to search around local hamfests and other classifieds. I ran across a guy who was moving and wanted to just give away his 140-foot tower. Used towers are INCREDIBLY cheap due to the high costs of removal and transportation. If you are flexible, willing to rent a vehicle that can haul one, and expend the effort, you can get a tower for free almost any time.
Erecting a tower is serious business. You have to know what you are doing, and know it well. It's not a simple matter of throwing it up and climbing it. You WILL kill yourself if you do not know what you are doing. You MUST have your tower installation inspected, and in many cases, you must get a building permit to put one up and have a civil engineer sign off on your pad and guy wire plan. You must also have a registered PE inspect and/or tension your guy wires if you are to be able to obtain liability insurance on your tower. If you do not do these things, and something happens, YOU ARE SCREWED. Towers are heavy, fragile, and wimpy. If your tower falls and kills someone, you're looking at a manslaughter charge unless you can demonstrate due diligence.
Do you remember kindergarten physics? Remember the machine called the lever? A 60-foot lever has a tremendous mechanical advantage. 20lbs of wind force at the top has 1200 lb-ft of torque at the bottom unless you are guyed properly. It's not uncommon to see wind forces of 100lbs or more during severe storms.
Putting up a tower is no joke.
Erecting towers isn't all that hard, hell I've put up 40 foot towers by myself. and I've put up 100 foot towers with 12 element,40 foot boom antennas attached to them with less than 5 people. We never had any cranes or 14 thousand pounds of concrete either. A couple pizzas is all we wanted. I even painted the very same 100 foot tower 10 years later with nothing more than a tower belt and a two by four to slide in between the rungs to hold the paint can.
But I will admit, you do need a quality tower if you are going over 100 feet. a wide base is very important. Alot of the older commercial towers were the same size from top to bottom, especially the ones over 500 feet tall. and they relied on guy wires for most of their support. Imagine climbing up a 500 foot tower? I don't think I would want to go that high, 100 foot is scary enough.
Anyone remember this story about one of the tallest structures in the united states falling down and killing two? http://www.eham.net/articles/4033
Of course, it was a 1,965 Foot Tower in Nebraska.
~Later~
The 1,965' tower fall was at KDUH in outstate Nebraska, about 400 miles west of me. As I recall the guys had been improperly tensioned for an HDTV antenna placement. The climbers were about a quarter mile above the ground when it all let go. One of them was 25 and his 18 year old girlfriend was on the ground near the base and had to simultaneously run for her life and watch her boyfriend die.
... my idea of a good day at work. This wasn't the final blow that put Media Integrators out of business but it did put them out of the tower construction game.
KDUH. Almost seems like an Encyclopedia Dramatica article, doesn't it?
Less famous is the second event in Nebraska that year - an injury to one of two climbers putting up a 'gate' - one of those triangular stand offs for antenna spacing. The gate caught during the lift phase, it was 'loaded' and stuck against the tower, and the guy who broke it free was rewarded with a nice, solid hit that shattered his right arm. Mmmm climbing one handed in agony
Not long after that a skillful bulldozer operator in Glenwood, Iowa, half an hour south east of Omaha scored a confirmed kill, hitting the top guy wire for the 300' city/county tower, neatly snapping it in the middle. Most of the equipment on it survived the folding, then was destroyed when they cut it and let it fall; cranes cost and there were safety concerns - easy to load a guy with a tow vehicle and torch the base.
Not long after that one of the 1,200' towers at Crown Point in Omaha came down during the night. Amazing it didn't damage any of the other three when it fell. The replacement is up and its quite strange to see three properly painted red and white towers and one new galvanized one.
We've got a bit of a pool going here - will the next fall be the 80' Rohn 25 half a mile east of the I-80/I-480 interchange that is so corroded one of its legs has a inch and a half air gap between tower leg and base, or will we see the badly overloaded Metro Transit Authority tower directly south of that interchange come down with two inexperience climbers on it?
I am very easy to get along with, but I don't have time to waste being nice to people who are being stupid. -Theo
No, I don't care that it's a tower.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
My buddy posted photos of the 96 foot tower he installed.