Antenna Raising (part 1)

August 1, 2025 K5ZD w8

I was anxious to get some antennas on the new tower. The plan was to have a steel mast with 10′ out of the top of the tower holding a Cushcraft A3-S WARC band antenna and a Force 12 C31xr tribander for 10, 15, and 20.

July 14, 2025

I attached a sidemount about 5′ up on the tower and put a mast inside of it. This gave me a place to reassemble the C31xr.

July 26, 2025

Because it was much smaller, it was easy to assemble the WARC antenna using a pipe inserted into a cable reel.

August 1, 2026

It was finally antenna-raising day! Mike was on the ground, and I was on the tower.

The Cushcraft antenna was first. It was easy to corkscrew through the guy wires and attach to the mast.

The AA-54 antenna analyzer was next. Very happy to see these SWR curves!

I bolted the C31xr’s heavy-duty boom-to-mast clamp to the mast before I came down.

It was exciting to have one antenna up. But it looks a bit lonely.

The C31 is a big and heavy antenna. There is no way Mike and I could have lifted it without the Capstan wench. It has a lot of elements that make it difficult to maneuver. We removed the elements that could be reached from the tower to make more space. With some effort, I climbed the tower as the antenna was lifted. I was able to work it around the two sets of guys.

There was only this one photo (with a thumb) since we were both fully engaged in the process! It does show the removed elements.

Once the antenna was bolted to the mast, we brought up the removed elements and mounted them to the boom. The Force 12 has a very clever way of doing the boom-to-element clamps that made this process relatively easy.

The SWR curves were not as great as I had hoped. The C31 has known issues on 15 meters, and I expect adjustment of the loading coil will make it better.

Curves for 20, 15, and 10:

By 1 p.m., the project was complete, and it was time to pack up and find some lunch.

I should have checked the SWR on the A3S after the C31xr was up. The C31 has a resonance on 17m that caused some interaction with the A3S. SWR on 12 and 17m was still OK, but not as good as it was when the antenna was by itself. A future project will be to turn them 90 degrees and see if that resolves the issue.

One more picture of the day’s work.