Homebuilt Antenna Tower

Between my ham radio, general coverage scanner, and WiFi access point, I was in dire need of a good antenna tower.

I designed the tower to have the following features:

1)  20 feet tall to clear any surrounding buildings

2) Multiple low-frequency ham dipole antennas

3) A general coverage scanner antenna

4) A pivot-able directional WiFi antenna

5) A surveillance camera to monitor the street and sidewalk in front of my apartment and the park across the street

The tower was made of galvanized steel conduit (far cheaper than steel piping), shaft collars to extend the conduit, assorted standard and u-bolts, L-brackets, concrete, buckets, steel wire, and I-hooks.

With conduit poles extended to 25 feet, I bolted the tops of three lengths together so that the poles could rest in a tetrahedral configuration.

I originally planned for each of the bases to be inserted into a bucket and then poured with concrete to act as a weight, but the guide wires were sufficient stabilization. Four wires were tightened from the top to I-hooks mounted into the roof. In addition, steel wire connected each of the three poles together at 5 foot intervals to prevent the structure from collapsing downward.

The entire structure was constructed on the ground and then assembled on the roof.

Once standing, the antennas were secured to the top using brackets that were pre-mounted on the top of the tower. The ham antennas were copper-wire dipoles that went from the top of the structure to set anchors on the roof. The original design featured a 19dbi WiFi antenna mounted to a motorized turntable so that it could pan 360 degrees and penetrate networks around the city.

Parts for the project totaled at less than $40, not including the actual antennas (which I already had).

In August of 2005, a year after its construction, I was forced to remove the antenna tower since it did not follow building code and I didn't have a proper permit for it.