50 foot pole for small fm antenna

[ChiefEngineer]

I find these at Tessco for 22k. Looking for one for a small NCE station. FM Antenna weighs 7 lbs. Looking for a 50 foot pole that requires no guying if possible. Any one have an old mast they want hauled away for a tax deductible donation?

Looking for spare transmitters and parts also. Have trailer, will haul.

 

[LA_Guy]

Use a 60 foot phone pole. Cheap and easily installed.

 

[nd2023]

You could try using a 50 foot flagpole.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Use a 60 foot phone pole. Cheap and easily installed.

No pattern distortion...good idea!

 

[WNTIRadio]

Have used phone poles for STL dishes too. They can take a LOT of windloading without any problem if properly installed.

Obviously, make sure you run a heavy ground wire all the way down the pole and ground it well.

 

[WNTIRadio]

What about one of these?

http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-002324

 

[secondchoice]

There was rumors that some of the early FM's on mountain tops had the telephone or electric company install a pole for the tower. Does any one know if this was the true? I had heard 100.3 Oak Ridge TN did this but now they have a 98 feet tower listed which is really too tall for a wooden pole.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

There was rumors that some of the early FM's on mountain tops had the telephone or electric company install a pole for the tower. Does any one know if this was the true? I had heard 100.3 Oak Ridge TN did this but now they have a 98 feet tower listed which is really too tall for a wooden pole.

Think that 30 meter figure is correct? Lets say they have a 25KW transmitter, almost no feed line loss and an 8 bay antenna...the bottom bay would be way below the tree line. And I can't imagine they are using 100KW TPO into a 2 bay antenna to get the entire antenna in the clear. Something doesn't seem right. Judging by the satellite map view, they'd probably have to shut the transmitter off to even allow the engineer to enter the premises! It gets out like a house of fire...reaches the Ohio river in places on my car radio.

 

[NoTimeForSleep]

There was rumors that some of the early FM's on mountain tops had the telephone or electric company install a pole for the tower. Does any one know if this was the true? I had heard 100.3 Oak Ridge TN did this but now they have a 98 feet tower listed which is really too tall for a wooden pole.

In PA, I had a four bay installed on a pole before due to time constraints and local zoning at this hill / mountain top site. The antenna ended up being below the tree line which caused drastic attenuation during the summer months. Once zoning went through several years later, a monopole was able to be built.

 

[Fieldtech1]

When I did wireless ISP installs we would get 90 foot wooden poles from the local utility and do a 20 foot burial for 70 feet AGL. I remember it costing about $1500 total for the pole and install done by the local electric co-op.

I beleive 125 foot is the largest wood utility pole avaiable.

 

[secondchoice]

There was rumors that some of the early FM's on mountain tops had the telephone or electric company install a pole for the tower. Does any one know if this was the true? I had heard 100.3 Oak Ridge TN did this but now they have a 98 feet tower listed which is really too tall for a wooden pole.

Think that 30 meter figure is correct? Lets say they have a 25KW transmitter, almost no feed line loss and an 8 bay antenna...the bottom bay would be way below the tree line. And I can't imagine they are using 100KW TPO into a 2 bay antenna to get the entire antenna in the clear. Something doesn't seem right. Judging by the satellite map view, they'd probably have to shut the transmitter off to even allow the engineer to enter the premises! It gets out like a house of fire...reaches the Ohio river in places on my car radio.

I forgot, is the "height" the FCC uses the center of radiation point of the antenna or the actual top of the tower? BTW the old WFMG (now WGFX) Gallatin, Tennessee started out with very short tower until the microwave relay tower was built for channel 13 to get the ABC TV network feed from the Nashville phone office to Bowling Green KY. I saw the old tower in 1972 (retired in place) and I and it was the shortest FM tower I had ever seen. Back then IIRC they were 50KW.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

KNBQ, Bethany, OK used to run their Class A right outside the studio on an approx. 70 foot telephone pole. It was the '60s when FMs were very poor.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

In the late 60's, WOXR 97.7 Oxford,OH was on the second floor of a bakery and they had a small TV tower on the roof for their transmitter. Doubt it would have met the radiation standards of today even at 3KW ERP.

 

[TomT]

The radiation center of the antenna is used to determine the height above average terrain--and, generally, above ground as well. However, you would still need to determine the height of the lowest bay above ground to determine if the antenna meets RF limits for the field on the ground. (There's a worksheet in the 301 form). For a low power (100 watts) FM, 50 feet AG would probably meet the RF limits; above that power level this would need to be checked.

The telephone/power pole idea has considerable merit; though 12" tower stock ("TV antenna tower" for those of us who remember pore-cable days) may work without guys at this height if a good chunk is sunk & concreted into the ground. Last I bought (2009) was about $110 per 10 foot section from local dealer. A metal pole that would be stable at 50 feet would probably be heavy, very large (14"?) and expensive.

 

[Chuck]

Universal Tower makes some very nice aluminum self suporting towers. Because they are very light weight, they aren't impossible for a couple of people to erect. Several Ham Radio dealers sell them, including Texas Tower in Plano TX. They would work fine for your purpose.

 

[TomZ]

I can be mistaken; but I'm remembering Rohn's SSVN series of self supporting towers.... sold in multiples of 12 feet.