the "Building of a New Tower" thread

[Eric47]

There is a new tower that will built near me soon.

this is going to be my thread where i update with progression pictures.

check back in time to time, should be interesting.


3/23/08 -- Easter Sunday

this looks to be the site and the carved out path of where the tower will be located, as you can see its up onto a hill and there seems to be a large steel cage, most likely for a large cement base to the monopole.

More to Come!

[Bill Clinton]

Very cool. Any thoughts on what carriers will be located here? Keep up the good work.

[Eric47]

AT&T is the main one i was told when i called the company building it. there is probably going to be others as this area is known for poor reception.

[MasterC]

Well, thats pretty neat. And congrats to the folks who can get service now.

[Eric47]

UPDATE: 3/30/08

These pics are of the site, taken one week later. they have finally completed the cement base for the monopole and they have also completed having power added to the site it looks like.

[RJB]

Eric do you think you could google map where this location is for us>

[Eric47]

how/why? just curious. i could give a specific address via PM

[MasterC]

I think If you google mapped it, it would be alot easier for people to see it. But, whatever you want to do.

[Eric47]

to: 32.5664,-84.907858 - Google Maps

[Day5InJanuary]

after looking at that goodle map,i can see why a tower is going up in that specific area.Looks like lot of resedential homes.

[RJB]

Originally Posted by EricN4707

how/why? just curious. i could give a specific address via PM

Hey thanks for locating that for us I just wanted to see where you were talking about. It is good to have a visual of that.

[Day5InJanuary]

[QUOTE=EricN4707;498763]UPDATE: 3/30/08

These pics are of the site, taken one week later. they have finally completed the cement base for the monopole and they have also completed having power added to the site it looks like

what company is buillding this tower.and i cant believe that they told you a carrier that is going to be on the tower. when i called a crown atlantic about carriers on specific tower, they told me it is against the law for them to release that kind of information, and wanted to know why i need that kind of information.let them know i was a tax payer and had the right to know.they refered me to my town hall.when i called the town hall.they didnt know there ___ from there elbow about the tower. thats pretty good that you could get that kind fo information from a tower company.

[Eric47]

im not sure whos building it. the company who got permission and the rights to do it is not the same one building it is what i found out from calling around.

the way i found out who was going to be on it was from watching the local government channel and seeing them on their getting rezoning permission and there was an ATT representative (id guess lawyer or something) there.

there is likely to be others added im sure.

[Day5InJanuary]

i see,that makes sense then

[RadioFoneGuy]

I have seen tower company let the concrete base Cure for 30 days before building the tower.

[Eric47]

yea it will be interesting to see the evolution of it.

with the climate here, i dont think concrete will take long to set.

i will check back on things once a week so i will report back with more pics then so we will see if anything changes.

[TelcomJunkie]

[QUOTE=Day5InJanuary;498826]

Originally Posted by EricN4707

UPDATE: 3/30/08

These pics are of the site, taken one week later. they have finally completed the cement base for the monopole and they have also completed having power added to the site it looks like

what company is buillding this tower.and i cant believe that they told you a carrier that is going to be on the tower. when i called a crown atlantic about carriers on specific tower, they told me it is against the law for them to release that kind of information, and wanted to know why i need that kind of information.let them know i was a tax payer and had the right to know.they refered me to my town hall.when i called the town hall.they didnt know there ___ from there elbow about the tower. thats pretty good that you could get that kind fo information from a tower company.

Against the law? Hardly. The only thing possibly limiting them from releasing that information would be a confidentiality agreement but breaking that agreement wouldn't be illegal. Now, most companies that lease the towers do respect their tenants privacy and in order to prevent vandalism they will not release who is in there. Your best bet lies with the installation contractor, they'll know who the work is being done for and typically, they share easily.

[Day5InJanuary]

ya, thats what they told me "against the law" the woman who answered also began to interigate me. i then stoped the conversation before it went any further. thats when she stated my town hall will have all the information i need. when i clalled the town hall they didnt know what i was talking about.

[Eric47]

New Pics 4/5/08

[Eric47]

now that i have a little time ill remark on the pictures.


the tower itself seems to be all one piece, but it may be sections, i honestly cant tell and i wish i had been there for when they put it up.

id estimate it to be about 100-150ft and its pretty much hollow like a tube.

standing at the base of the tower my phone said "SOS" so i suppose they did pick a rather bad spot for ATT and the area around there has been known for weak coverage. IMO however, it may have been more effective down the road from there some but its in an area where getting zoning permissions is tough. this is "church property" that they built this one on.

the large loomes of wire id assume are to supply up to the attenas and for the backhaul.

there is no attenas up on the site yet, but there are 3 racks hanging up there with a place for 4 antennas per rack. my guess is this will carry both EDGE and 3G as they are rolling it out in this area currently.

anyone else noticy anything? it all seems pretty standard to me, we dont get any high speed concealed towers or anything around here.

[Yankees368]

I never understood why they dont wire up and attach the panels on the ground, and then life the pole up. It seems like it would save a lot of work.

[Eric47]

Originally Posted by Yankees368

I never understood why they dont wire up and attach the panels on the ground, and then life the pole up. It seems like it would save a lot of work.

you make a valid point. i did not understand that either. it must be as a safety precaution to not ruin the equipment in the event that it was to fall or something, or either its pre-manufactured that way.

[Yankees368]

Hopefully one of our techie friends here can clear this up for us.

[Eric47]

Originally Posted by Yankees368

Hopefully one of our techie friends here can clear this up for us.

ive been hoping for the same thing but it seems they have all been AWOL lately. i suspect with the better weather, they are probably all busy working.

[TelcomJunkie]

There are several reasons for not installing the coax and antennas until the monopole is actually in the air.

Most towers are built in sections, similar to an big erector set. In this particular case, this pole is made up of several sleeves that are slipped over one-another and then secured together. All of this, including the antenna arms are lifted up by a large crane. Being that these towers are steel they are quite heavy and due to many particulars involving most tower sites you are limited in what size crane you can bring in. With the weight, crane restrictions and transportation issues, most towers come in sections between 10 and 40ft. I've seen several 50ft monopoles shipped as one item but that is about as big as you'll get in a single section.

The coax and antennas are left off until the end because of the risk of damage and the need to have exact lengths of cables installed. The coax used on towers this tall is quite thick and quite expensive, it's certainly not something you want to have to replace because it got nicked or dinged during installation. Then there is the matter of installation acceptance and how the test procedures are performed require access to different segments of the transmission system. Completing half of this on the ground and then the rest later would be almost impossible to due and make it meet spec's. Considering how much more cautious you'd have to be during the erection of the tower, that extra time negates any time gained by doing on the ground versus in the air.

[TelcomJunkie]

Originally Posted by Eric47

ive been hoping for the same thing but it seems they have all been AWOL lately. i suspect with the better weather, they are probably all busy working.

Ha, typically it's the other way around. During foul weather is when we're typically swamped.

[Eric47]

thanks for that! this week i may try to update the pictures more frequently if i can as id assume that they will start working more heavily now that they have the time consuming things out of the way that are uncontrollables.

[Yankees368]

Originally Posted by TelcomJunkie

There are several reasons for not installing the coax and antennas until the monopole is actually in the air.

Most towers are built in sections, similar to an big erector set. In this particular case, this pole is made up of several sleeves that are slipped over one-another and then secured together. All of this, including the antenna arms are lifted up by a large crane. Being that these towers are steel they are quite heavy and due to many particulars involving most tower sites you are limited in what size crane you can bring in. With the weight, crane restrictions and transportation issues, most towers come in sections between 10 and 40ft. I've seen several 50ft monopoles shipped as one item but that is about as big as you'll get in a single section.

The coax and antennas are left off until the end because of the risk of damage and the need to have exact lengths of cables installed. The coax used on towers this tall is quite thick and quite expensive, it's certainly not something you want to have to replace because it got nicked or dinged during installation. Then there is the matter of installation acceptance and how the test procedures are performed require access to different segments of the transmission system. Completing half of this on the ground and then the rest later would be almost impossible to due and make it meet spec's. Considering how much more cautious you'd have to be during the erection of the tower, that extra time negates any time gained by doing on the ground versus in the air.

And there it is. The answer I thought I would get, from the person I thought I would get it from.

[Eric47]

Originally Posted by Yankees368

And there it is. The answer I thought I would get, from the person I thought I would get it from.

yep! its great having him and others like him around

[TelcomJunkie]

Originally Posted by Yankees368

And there it is. The answer I thought I would get, from the person I thought I would get it from.

And reading it back to myself now and seeing all the grammar errors in it makes me think I should save posting for when I wake up, not right before I go to bed after being up for 20+ hours.

Originally Posted by Eric47

yep! its great having him and others like him around

Thanks Though there are only a few of us on the board and we can't always comment in threads due to certain company obligations we do enjoy posting in these types of threads and sharing the information with those that are curious.