Industry Forums > Wireless Service Providers > What type of towers do you use?

What type of towers do you use?

You can get a guyed tower to 2,000 feet...or more.
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In your other thread you mention an old water tower and that you can get 75 feet elevation from it. How much mast on top of the water tower gets you 75 feet?

Can you post photos of the water tower? YOu may be able to push 50 feet of popup mast on top of the existing water tower height. You might be able to guy a length of residential tower to make it easier to climb.

Residential towers start at about $10 per foot while commercial free-standing towers are closer to $100 per foot.

reply to cowsgonemadd1

reply to John Galt

reply to cowsgonemadd1
There are advantages to both types. A self supporting tower takes up less area since you don't need the guy wires. But they cost more.

Keep in mind that any tower 200 feet or taller (including any appurtenances) will have to be registered with the FAA and FCC and will have to be lit and painted (or strobed) in accordance with FAA part 17. So a 190 foot would work good, as long as you don't have anything more more than 9.9 feet sticking up above it.

reply to cowsgonemadd1
»www.tessco.com/yts/partner/manuf···_stg.pdf
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Good document:

»168.166.124.22/RDT/reports/Ri040···6006.pdf
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More on corrosion:

»www.wbdg.org/ccb/DOD/UFC/ufc_3_570_06.pdf
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reply to cowsgonemadd1
In reality, when you take into account the acquisition of the additional real estate and the additional labor involved in guyed tower construction, the costs are about the same. It comes down to do you have 1 acre or 10 acres?

reply to cowsgonemadd1
"The one I work under is 1,976 feet."

No way!! You climb it? You own it with this wifi?
I need to see a pic my my my.

I meant by saying does it move like do they wobble any or are the wires so tight it cant move a bit.

A photo of it is right here:
»img263.imageshack.us/img263/5092···0jk6.jpg

The tower is 65 feet or so and a 10 foot mast I would add to it to get the antenna's away from the metal barrel.

I saw some pop up masts that go up to 80 feet!

As far as land I could not place this anywhere on our farm land but back behind my house we could use possibly 1.5 acres. It might be more I am not sure how big it is.

How much room would I need for say a 190ft guyed tower?

Popups are OK for client installs but a PITA for a POP to service. I have heard of some daredevils actually climb a mast but I would advise against it.

If the top of that tank is solid enough, you could consider a Glen Martin quad mount like the 17.5 foot RT-1832 on top of it. You could guy it to the water tower legs for extra safety. A 10 foot mast above that would put you around 92 feet AGL.

Still, it would be marginal in height so a taller guyed tower away from the water tower would be the way to go. You need as much area out from the base of the tower as the tower is tall. Minimum guy spacing is 80% of the tower height.

»www.glenmartin.com/industrial/pg17.htm

reply to cowsgonemadd1

reply to UHF

This tower is a television broadcast tower. There's a slightly taller one just a few miles away. I think the tallest tower is in North Dakota.

I don't climb it.

damn it, I have to climb to the top of that tower someday and see for myself what brand of surge arrestors they use.

reply to cowsgonemadd1
I have some cool pics of a BIG tower from atop the upper deck of one of our little old ATT towers. This is the 1800' KXXV tower that a Blackhawk helicopter crashed into one of the guy wires of a few years ago. The crash killed all the crew members aboard.

»www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/1111567.html

I'll give some narration and links to pics. The tower these pics were taken from the top of is 180'... which is just BELOW the first set of guys on the big TV tower out in the field (FIRST set of guys at about 180'!!!).

»img164.imageshack.us/img164/7686···yno1.jpg

Here's a view of the top of the TV tower (from atop my 180 footer).

»img181.imageshack.us/img181/874/toptu9.jpg

In another of the pics, you can see the guy wires of the TV tower extending out BEYOND the free-stander I'm standing on. The site it is constructed on ENCOMPASSES our 180 foot free-stander. (Guy wires extend out about 1000'.)

»img187.imageshack.us/img187/8466···squ7.jpg

Pretty amazing tower. Near Moody, TX... in the same area as a LOT of tall TV towers. You can see some in the distance in the pic below.

»img408.imageshack.us/img408/4250···sqt0.jpg

KCEN-TV here has a 1924 footer which was, at the time of construction, the tallest tower in the nation (in 1981).

The key that many people seem to be missing is that on these huge TV towers, most have an elevator built into them. They're THAT big. So, consequently, there's very little climbing involved. Amazing massive structures.

I've built a number of Rohn towers between 150-200' tall, but would love to one day work on one of those huge ones.

reply to cowsgonemadd1
How does these guyed towers go up?
We have a farm and have loaders and such to hold things but I am unsure how you put one up. Do you pay people or is it simply piece by piece?

8000 or so for a 200 foot guyed tower sounds nice one of you mentioned. I would go for the 190ft one though so I would not have to mess with all the registering and such. I think I would still add a light.

I doubt I could climb a 2000ft tower. My legs would be jello before I got up and down.

Any other sites where they sell towers or where you buy towers would be nice.

I hope this all works.

I really hope I can get a customer to buy my internet as I have AT&T in my area and a local phone company and with those bundle plans I doubt anyone would cancel them to save 10 bucks a month on DSL but you never know. Not everyone has bundles anyways.

reply to cowsgonemadd1
Also, here's a 230' Rohn 80 series tower we've recently acquired...

»img403.imageshack.us/img403/180/···2jj8.jpg

Here's the base and our enclosure...

»img337.imageshack.us/img337/6067···8ew6.jpg

And here's a pic of a 150' Rohn 45 I constructed last year (with an additional set of guy wires for extra support because of the large parabolic antennas... will be adding a torque arm assembly atop this tower next month)...

»img248.imageshack.us/img248/8868···5ix8.jpg

reply to cowsgonemadd1
Putting up a tower requires tons of planning and engineering. For a guyed tower in the 200' range, we use a gin pole (erection fixture) and rope. The pole clamps to a leg of the tower. The pulley atop the pole slides up to ten or so feet above the top of the tower. A worker (or preferably, capstan winch) on the ground pulls a section of tower up to the top of the gin pole, then a worker up top seats it and bolts it in place. Jump the gin pole up to the top of the new section, pull up another section, add guy wires, if necessary, rinse and repeat. Once the guy rods and tower foundation are poured, myself and 2 workers can stack 150' of tower (including guy wires) in 3 work days if the wind is good.

Visit sites like radian/rohn, trylon, etc. for tower research, tessco.com sells tower kits, and Comtrain USA is the best place for tower climbing/construction training and certification. Tessco also sells safety supplies (harnesses, ropes, etc... I like DBI/Sala).

I can answer most specific questions, but I can't really tell you what type of tower you need.