Man builds 60-foot tower to nab some wireless broadband
By Paul Miller 
posted March 3rd 2006 10:41AM
posted March 3rd 2006 10:41AM
posted March 3rd 2006 10:41AM
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Sorry, #19 -- #3's comment has been superceded by #45 as the best ever(in this thread).
I spent the week making frankenchildren - sewing the body parts of dead children together, then hooking them up to a 60ft wifi antenna waiting for the electrical shock to spark them to life.
So, what if ADSL or cable gets introduced in his town in a few days? Oh well, at least the Canadian flag can fit on top of the tower quite nicely :)
Must be nice to live in a town where putting up a tower doesn't start a war with the zoning nazis.
But he really should have just cut a deal with the church to put an antenna in the steeple. Would have been a lot cheaper.
Probably just used underinformed initiative... looks as though he's using an omni antenna. Anyway, I'm glad he's sorted now with a connection, but he probably could have saved himself all this engineering just using a Yagi antenna on the roof which should have given him enough gain to render the church effectively transparent. More info on the actual terrain would be useful.
Andy.
The lengths people will go to just to download porn faster. Sigh.
Wow, he's almost as much of a loser as I am...
...I would have built the 60 foot tower on top of the church...
A church is NOT going to let someone build an antenna on top of their roof just so some guy can have faster internet access... get real. Besides, what would he do if he was able to? String a big long wire from the church's roof clear over to his roof, or down through the church and tunnel it underground thirty meters away? Yeah, right. Tunneling wire underground that distance is far more expensive than what he spent. Besides, I don't know anyone who would allow a big long tunnel to be dug through their property for something that would only benefit some guy they probably didn't even know.
I think what this guy did was amazing, and it was obviously meant to be because every piece of hardware and equipment and the space he needed to complete the task was available to him through his father or someone he knew, and at a discount or for free.
Granted, no one wants a 60-foot tower in their yard, but he had no other options in terms of acquiring a cable-speed internet connection.
From reading the whole article, it took a lot of work and he achieved his goal. So I commend the guy for his hard work and ingenuity.
I want to build a 60 foot tower using the finest of engineering precision, then drop it on DT's head. Does DT stand for Dr. Tard?
DAMN... that site is getting hammerd....
I missed out on all of the fun; I must say, DT got "pwned." That's what you get for trying to be the first post.
wow, these comments are really negative. It's a pretty cool idea, being from a small canadian town, which is in the process of installing wireless broadband (thought we were the first, apperently not :-( ) i love it. good job!
How much duct tape was used in the construction of the tower?
G$
As a commercial sign installer, my hat's off to the guy. He obviously has access to equipment that can reach a significant height and he dug about 2 feet from the foundation of his dwelling with a machine. Either that or he hiked the sections on his back tier by tier and dug the footing hole by hand. I would have rather seen photo's of THAT! The Cross section of the aerial itself could not be more than a freestanding pipe with similar diameter. (much less in fact because it is perforated) and the footing size, We know it's 6 feet deep right? Pi x rad squared. And roughly 14,000 lbs. of concrete (and you thought youd never use that Texas Instruments calculator).. . I wish they would have specified wet or dry because there's about an 800 lb difference per cubic yard after concrete is fully cured. That makes it a caisson footing. Dirt Drill so to speak. Is there a Dr. in the house?
After careful inspection of the photograph, I could not tell if there was an apartment building next door, or there was huge sale on that color of beige that month at the local hardware store. Factor in the fact that he was Canadian. I think the smart factor in Metric is about 1:3.. So the American standard threw me. I could see the thing bending at a 60-70 MPH gust and snapping at 90-100, but they call those 50 and 100 year storm events, If your outside in a storm like that, your afraid that your aerial is gonna bail, and you have Better have a Camera Handy Again! And the guy that brought up the grounding.. he is soooo right.. Concrete is a horrible conductor of electricity. It is microscopic pockets of air and water which explode when heated. Resistance=heat.
Personally, If I had to decide to build something like that next to my house, or suffer with dialup I would move. Though I have given some thought to erecting the worlds largest wind chime, We all have our vices. Good thread.. _;
It helps to read the article.
He did in fact ground the tower via a ground wire and also secured the the tower higher up to the side of his home to stabilize it.
He also accomplished all of the installation through his father and acquaintances with the proper machinery to do much of the work that either would have been too difficult or impossible to do by hand.
#49: The antenna is at least 60' away from any people. And he uses a directional antenna that focuses the power to the receiver so that even less power is radiated towards the house.
I consider this even safer than emmitting the same ammount of power through an omnidirectional antenna in the living room (or bedroom as it happens to be where I live).
Just because the tower looks like a TV station does not make it emmit the same kind of power.
Whatever the cost for free wifi. lol
Wow. I bet his his neighbors just love him.
Wow - thats quite an erection.
Wish I had a good line of site but I've got the Blue Ridge Mts.in my way of any WiFi.I'm stuck with 56k