This is safe for me to post.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1378420287.jpg

Michael, just a ballpark. What does one of those babies cost?

Obviously putting up one in the middle of nowhere costs more, but most of them go up in the middle of no-where. I doubt there are many in downtown Chicago. ;)

I resisted to the point of letting it go. I must be getting old

Today's dollars, 5-6 mil a pop. Depends on the amount of RF electronics as well. Single HPAs can easily cost a buck twenty five to a quarter mil. each.

You'd be surprised. 9M (half the size of those babies) go up on the tops of scrapers easy peasy.

Anyone driving through Rapid City has probably seen that antenna that I was riding.

Funny story,, The very next day after that picture was taken, I had an old boy drive up to the site, get out of his truck just to tell me through the chain link that if he ever saw that thing pointed at his house (he lived across the freeway and up the hillside) he was going to start putting holes in it with his Model 94!

I told him "Yessir!" and kept on working!:D

All the local TV stations have some decent size dishes. They all have a RADAR dome as well. I figure those are a bit big for a TV station ;) I doubt any local TV station anywhere would spend 5 or 6 million for an antenna.

Amazing pics. I couldn't imagine climbing all over those things. Yikes!

Well, according to the jassackes at the dealer, the part 'should' be here next thursday or friday.....
Then they have to actually install it.....

The service manager was whining because I'm putting a bunch of miles on the loaner.....I told her it wouldn't be a damn issue if they'd listened to me 6 weeks ago and checked the damn connector....

Most of the antennas we do for Direct TV, Dish, Echostar etc are in the 9M to 13M range. The picture of the three together are 18M diameters.

Direct TV alone, we've probably put in 50 plus 9Ms over the last 5 years as all the big providers are upgrading to Ka Band for more bandwith. A full 9M with all the RF electronics control racks and site install is around 2 mil. in todays dollars. How's that for some math, heh heh.

The dudes that are really crazy are those climbing towers. I can monkey around our antennas all day and it doesn't bother me. The thought of climbing a 300-500 ft tower??? Uhh Uhh, no way.

I am amazed at how fast that big dish at Greenbank can move. I love that place.

One of our groups down in Tejas built all the structure for the GBT and another built the drive system. Matter of fact, several of the iron worker guys that built the three (of twelve) in my pic also worked GBT including the cat heading out to VA with me on this trip. Man, I've heard some stories and seen some amazing pics of the GBT in process.

That's a rough bunch of guys too!:D:D Luckily, I hold an Honorary.;)

I watched the big one go up, it was very interesting

Well, the hand feels a good bit better, still quite sore thoughhttp://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps68f36cce.jpg

Which time?;)

One of the reasons it took so long was due to shall we say,,,, failing members???

I was unaware of that. I would roll by there every couple of months on road trips

joe, i'd soak that hand in warm, very salty water. but that's me.... i am cautious about wounds.

I'm fighting infection from the inside with scotch!

I've been soaking it in epsom salt too. ....

It's just sore now, but I think thatvis to be expected when you stick your hand in a prop spinning at 8000rpm

it looks sore. not as bad as i expected, however.

Yeah, I'm counting myself lucky in this one!