60 Feet to High Speed

LincLinc OwnerDetroit Icrontian
edited November 2008 in Science & Tech
With a building blocking his reception, one man would stop at nothing to get access to the only high-speed ISP in town.

How one of our own members built his own wireless reception tower.

A big thanks to GooD for taking the time to tell his story.
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Comments

  • leishi85leishi85 Grand Rapids, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    saw this a while ago online somewhere, it really takes a lot of determination
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    leishi85 wrote:
    saw this a while ago online somewhere, it really takes a lot of determination
    It was a thread in the Pub. This is the more indepth version :)
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2006
    What an awesome undertaking - nice job, GooD! :respect:
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    Nice!
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited March 2006
    GooD, there is not a single person in the world that is more deserving of high speed internet access than you my friend! :D

    Awesome write up, and congrats on a truly unique project! :thumbsup:

    :canflag: Never tell a Canadian they cant have highspeed..
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    Truly an awesome achievement.. and absolutely crazy.. brilliant! :D
  • BLuKnightBLuKnight Lehi, UT Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    That's too cool. I dugg the article. I wonder if SM is going to see a spike in visits.
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited March 2006
    Were on digg
    http://digg.com/technology/60_Feet_to_High_Speed%3A_Man_builds_own_reception_tower
  • GooDGooD Quebec (CAN) Member
    edited March 2006
    Hahah THIS is awesome, i was not thinking this article would reach a site like digg.com :P

    Keebler you did a great job on the rewriting of the story, you keep it in the same shape, without the grammar problem as english is not my primary language :)

    I hope this article will make SM touch the sky, as my tower almost allow me to do so ;)

    BTW some guys on digg.com are not fun at all, but thats part of the game I suppose hehe :p

    Thankx SM for allowing me to show to the world this project :rockon:

    :)
  • TroganTrogan London, UK
    edited March 2006
    Congrats GooD. That is an awesome achievement :thumbsup:

    Nice article aswell :)
  • ArmoArmo Mr. Nice Guy Is Dead,Only Aqua Remains Member
    edited March 2006
    lol wtf, thats awsome

    what did your neighbors say?
  • GooDGooD Quebec (CAN) Member
    edited March 2006
    I posted a comment on digg to answer some of the questions (comments) people had while reading the article. :p

    Armo : Every neighbors around me are people i know, and they like me :buck: They just said 'awesome', i had some ':eek:' too lol

    Anyway, i would not recommand any of them to try to force me to remove my tower... :range: lol
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    GooD - via the digg article, you've been made.

    I read your article last night... then today, i was scrolling through MAKE blog, and I saw one of your photos! :hair:

    I was thinking, "Wow, traffic is really gonna go up, now!" :respect:
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    oh man. :thumbsup:
  • reelbigfishreelbigfish Boston, MA Member
    edited March 2006
    GooD, c'est une grand tour! Je sais l'Internet est bon. Je n'ai pas eu l'Internet grand vitesse pendant beacoup d'années, et finalement je l'ai obtenu! J'espere que vous l'appréciez beaucoup. C'est un bonne article aussi bien. Salut!
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    GooD that is one awesome project.
    A lot of hard work and determination went into it. I can understand the feeling you had after your first download at the new speeds.

    Good on you buddy :thumbsup:
  • GooDGooD Quebec (CAN) Member
    edited March 2006
    OMG, reelbigfish speaks french -> Merci de ton commentaire c'est très apprécié.


    Winga -> This feeling was awesome ! But this feeling is gone now, as you can see here im having big problems with my computer :banghead: For the first month it was working very well with my onboard MARVELL NIC, but after that problems pop up and now its not working most of the time.

    Its working on a laptop so its my PC that goes wrong i guess :skeptic: I use my determination to resolve this problem since 2 month now lol Sorry for to link to my LAN problems but its a great place to have more people involve in it lol ;D

    At least the fact that i am now getting published for my achievement enjoy myself quite a bit :D
  • HawkHawk Fla Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    Outstanding job Good! Now all it needs is a Canadian flag set on top of that baby. Well done.
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    Great article GooD, and good proofing Keebs!!!! :headbang:
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    Great work man. I love you salvaging the stuff. Using thread rod in the base and mounting plates is real smart. Everything ahifts and settles and this lets you keep it straight and tight.

    I have helped install a couple of such towers and I can offer some tips.

    If your tower have feet like this one, we usually rent a power auger and drill three holes about 5' deep. These are the footings filled with concrete for the legs to mount to. A lot less concrete and less digging.

    One of the towers only had a single point at the bottom and relied on the guy wires to keep it stable. This works if you have a lot of space. These are slick to intall and easy. Here you will have 4 concrete footings, one for the base and one for each guy wire anchor.
  • GooDGooD Quebec (CAN) Member
    edited March 2006
    edcentric wrote:
    Great work man. I love you salvaging the stuff. Using thread rod in the base and mounting plates is real smart. Everything ahifts and settles and this lets you keep it straight and tight.

    I have helped install a couple of such towers and I can offer some tips.

    If your tower have feet like this one, we usually rent a power auger and drill three holes about 5' deep. These are the footings filled with concrete for the legs to mount to. A lot less concrete and less digging.

    One of the towers only had a single point at the bottom and relied on the guy wires to keep it stable. This works if you have a lot of space. These are slick to intall and easy. Here you will have 4 concrete footings, one for the base and one for each guy wire anchor.


    I had think about something similar (3 hole filled with concrete) but when i have see the huge format of my tower (plus the fact that i was no paying for concrete) i decided to go with a full big cement filled block. I did not found many info on net about this kind of installation and i was not willing to see my tower fall down because of a weak base. Man this tower is heavy stuff, and still i can see the upper part dance in the wind when temp goes wild The pression must be very hard at the base when wind hit 90-100 km/h lol

    Have you already try this set-up (3 hole filled with concrete) with a 60' tower ? If yes then it would be a very good and cheaper altenative to my solution :)
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited March 2006
    Gah its taking forever to load a page .. either my schools internet connection is overloaded or sm has been dugg :o.
  • GooDGooD Quebec (CAN) Member
    edited March 2006
    GrayFox wrote:
    Gah its taking forever to load a page .. either my schools internet connection is overloaded or sm has been dugg :o.

    Its not your internet connection, its my fault :O lol

    Seems like SM is getting a heavy load of hits :rockon:
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited March 2006
    GooD wrote:
    Its not your internet connection, its my fault :O lol

    Seems like SM is getting a heavy load of hits :rockon:
    I had a fealing that was why :Pwned: .
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2006
    An interesting chain of events:

    Slow Connection> >Build Tower> >Write Great Article> >Site Gets Hammered> >Slow Connection ;D;D;D
  • IvoshieeIvoshiee
    edited March 2006
    I am not a member of team FAH #93 (I am in team #0), but just stepped in to congratulate GooD for excellent work with the tower.
    There are lot of whiners out there who keep just complaining about poor or non-existent Internet reception, but still do not like to do anything for it.

    Besides interest in the FAH, I am a "tower" amateur myself and to get Internet connection I set up a ~140 feet tower:
    http://www.vendomar.ee/~ivo/tower.jpg
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    Ivoshiee wrote:
    I am not a member of team FAH #93 (I am in team #0), but just stepped in to congratulate GooD for excellent work with the tower.
    There are lot of whiners out there who keep just complaining about poor or non-existent Internet reception, but still do not like to do anything for it.

    Besides interest in the FAH, I am a "tower" amateur myself and to get Internet connection I set up a ~140 feet tower:
    http://www.vendomar.ee/~ivo/tower.jpg

    Thanks for stopping in, Ivoshiee. The forum is open to everyone, so you're welcome to stick around as you see fit. :thumbsup:
  • GooDGooD Quebec (CAN) Member
    edited March 2006
    Ivoshiee wrote:
    Besides interest in the FAH, I am a "tower" amateur myself and to get Internet connection I set up a ~140 feet tower:
    http://www.vendomar.ee/~ivo/tower.jpg

    Woot thats a NICE tower, looks like an industrial one. Far better looking then mine :( haha ;) It must have cost you a arm and a leg for that :eek:

    Nothing can stop a geek when it comes to get high-speed internet
    Its even more truth if the geek is canadian

    :canflag:
  • IvoshieeIvoshiee
    edited March 2006
    GHoosdum wrote:
    Thanks for stopping in, Ivoshiee. The forum is open to everyone, so you're welcome to stick around as you see fit. :thumbsup:
    Thanks.
  • IvoshieeIvoshiee
    edited March 2006
    GooD wrote:
    Woot thats a NICE tower, looks like an industrial one.
    Painted military tower, bought as a scrap metal.
    Far better looking then mine :( haha ;) It must have cost you a arm and a leg for that :eek:
    The metal itself was about $550 USD, but new set of wires, pullers, etc what are holding it up, was about $1500 USD.
    Nothing can stop a geek when it comes to get high-speed internet
    Its even more truth if the geek is canadian

    :canflag:
    Very true.
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