Installing a US Towers HDX-572 72 Foot Tower
Cushcraft 2 element 40 Meter Beam and 4 Element SteppIR
Navajo River Ranch, CO

Paul, WY7I, recently escaped the environs of the Southern California rat race, and headed for the mountains, seeking relative isolation, the mountain life style, and a great place to operate his amateur radio station. He found it at the Navajo River Ranch, south of Pagosa Springs about 27 miles, and about 8300 feet elevation in the shadow of the San Juan Mountains. After Paul and Brenda got settled in, the next priority was to set up his ham radio station. Looks like the tower has been on the ground long enough to allow a few weeds to grow around it. Time to get this puppy in the air! When Paul and Brenda planned the construction of their lovely home, Paul also had the contractor dig and pour the base for his tower. With a little help from some available equipment, we were able to get the tower over to the base, and bolt it in place. We replaced the old winch with a new one, and in a short time, had it ready to go up. After the tower was ready, Paul assembled the Cushcraft 2 element 40 meter beam, and I put the 4 element SteppIR together, since I have one, and it was a familiar task. We tested the SteppIR's control cable before we installed it on the tower, and all went well! The first antenna on the mast was the Cushcraft 40 meter yagi. It was lighter than the SteppIR, and the added height would help it work a bit better. We worked on the installation with the tower tilted at an angle, and braced for safety. The 40M yagi boom is on and the next step was to put the SteppIR boom on the mast. With both of the booms installed on the two antennas, it was time to do the element installation. The SteppIR 6 meter elements were installed and we were then ready to do the longer elements on both antennas We raised the tower vertical, then rotated the antennas 180 degrees, then lowered the tower back to a shallow angle to install the elements. This was the hard part - raising and lowering the tower after the elements were installed so we could do the other half of the element installation. Although it was done in November, the high altuitude and lingering Indian Summer we experience in the Rockies made it a sweat-inducing task. We were fortunate, since Paul was having some fencing installed, and the gentleman who was doing that work volunteered to assist by letting us use his Bobcat as a work platform. Great timing! That simplified matters considerably. Safety is a primary concern - you'll note that the base on the "work platform" is a heavy piece of plywood. You have to stand in the center of the plywood to keep it from "flipping" you off into the ether and a subsequent hard landing, many feet below. That's yours truly on the end of the drill, installing a mount for Paul's 80 and 160 meter antennas. Done, up in the air, and ready to go work somebody! There was a point when we both wished that the installation had included a motorized winch. High altitude (8300 feet) can be a problem with heavy exertion. Nothing a few cold 807s can't help! [For you youngsters, an 807 amplifier tube had a remarkable shape like a bottle of beer.]