OK, I'm in my final (I hope) figuring for my antenna/tower installation. I'm considering mounting the tower on my deck which is made from 2" x 6" decking with 2" x 8" rafters on 24" centers. The deck is sitting on 6"x6" posts and is VERY WELL supported. There are 7 of the 6"x6" posts supporting the 20' x 20' deck. The deck is only about 4 years old and is VERY sturdy.
The tower will be Rohn 45G and the gable of my house is 13' above the top of the deck. I am going to use a house bracket near the top of the first section at approximately the 9' level and one or two sections on top of that. Probably one section will be enough and will put the top of the tower about 7' above my metal roof which is well over 1/4 wavelength on even on 6M.
I haven't figured out what mast and thrust bearing I am going to use yet. I will be using a Yaesu G-5500 rotor in a split configuration with the AZ rotor inside the tower and the EL rotor above the 6M beam and a fiberglass cross boom for mounting the satellite antenna's.
I want to install a homebrew 3-4 element 6M beam directly above the tower and above that an M2 2MCP22 and M2 432MCP42 with ARR preamps for both. That will be all of the antenna's on the tower so the loading should be rather light. I am also intending to install another 6"x6" post directly under the tower for added support.
Now, before anyone asks why I'm wanting to install on top of the deck I will explain. The deck is about 8' off the ground on the above mentioned 6"x6" posts and I don't see the need to install through the deck and into my pavement driveway just for 2 sections of tower. Especially since it will be mounted with a house bracket near the top of the first section and only one section extending above that. Does this sound feasible or am I gambling?
Any suggestions or recommendations? Positive or negative. All are welcome...All are welcome :-0
Thanks, RoD KD0XX
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