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You can
write your own review of the AB-577.
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K0EX
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 29, 2009 10:50
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THE portable tower solution !!
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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among the members of our DX group, we have several of these. they are perfect for putting-up a rotatable, directional antenna for Field Day. equally so, even tho they can be erected for long-term use, they are a great solution as a temporary tower (to keep one "on the air") while installing a permanent tower. when/if you buy replacement parts or accessories, working with Ben and his crew at Ontario Surplus is an A+ experience.
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WB2SZR
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 14, 2008 11:31
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Get one if you can.
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Getting harder to find but do a Google search and you will find the last remaining source. Put mine up, by myself in under a day. It is an amazing piece of engineering and a bargin at the price. This had to cost the Gvt thousands of dollars to produce. It is so well designed to be quickly put up without the need for a concrete base , special tools, ladders, or anyting. I am very impressed.
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KB3IFH
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Rating: 5/5
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May 25, 2008 05:51
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Nice Tower
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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Since there hasn't been a review in sometime I thought I'd add one. Purchased mine for $500. I put the tower up by myself with no help. Manual is very easy to follow and installation took about 3 hours since I had never done it before. The slowest part (for me) was getting the screw type stakes into the ground. Several folks in the Maryland area have these as permanent installations. It would be a perfect tower for Field Day or any portable operation.
Here's a link I found to download a pdf copy of the manual:
http://www.wd5eae.org/TM%2011-5820-538-12.pdf
73's
Randy
KB3IFH
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KN7T
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 27, 2006 15:59
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Perfect for small spaces
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I have one of these installed in my backyard and it supports an HX-5Bi hexbeam and a B&W BWD-90 folded dipole. I bought mine from another ham who no longer had a use for it. Occasionally, you can still find these at government auctions but they are becoming increasingly rare. A number of places still sell spare parts for them and E-bay is another place where I've seen parts available. Installation of the AB-577 is rather straightforward, the military manual that came with it is very clear and intuitive. One person can erect this tower but I would only recommend that if you're doing it in completely calm conditions. Otherwise, have a buddy help you with the raising/lowering as needed. The base of my AB-577 sits on 4 square concrete pavers that are set in sand and the tower is pinned to the ground through holes that I drilled in the pavers. The tower base has a built-in level which aids in getting the thing set-up vertically. The steel guy wire assemblies are beefy but the adjusters on the ground end can be difficult to work and there are reports of them breaking at inopportune times. There are two types of guy wire anchors supplied with the tower, one is a standard drive in type stake - the other is a longer, screw-type auger. I used both types for my installation - the longest wires are attached to the screw anchors, the shorter two sets of wires are attached to the drive in stakes. The lowest set of guy wires can be a hazard, so be careful when you're working around them so you don't inadvertantly hang yourself. I have bright orange ribbon tied to mine to increase visibility. This tower can easily support a small tri-band beam but I've seen antennas as large as a TH6DXX installed on them. Since the tower can be rotated by hand, there is no requirement for a rotator but be aware that manual rotation of the unit is very noisy and not something that you'd want to do in the middle of the night during a contest. For my application, this tower is just what the doctor ordered and it's far cheaper than a full-up steel tower and concrete base.
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N3FR
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 13, 2003 17:12
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Great tower, very sturdy
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have a Mosley Classic-33 tri-band beam atop this 50 foot tower and the entire setup works great. Initial installation took about 2 hours for 2 guys. Next lowering and raising should take only 1 hour for one guy. It would be difficult at best to reach the elevated back part of my yard with cement so this was the perfect answer. Last year we had 75 mph winds whip through our neighborhood and the tower didn't even wimper. The tower is also supporting 4 dipole antennas. I am very, very pleased with this tower.
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W7UIV
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 14, 2001 18:41
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Looks good
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I'm giving this a 5 only because I have to give it something, and I don't want to knock it down unnecessarily. This is mainly to give a brief description of how this thing works, and a source of supply for them. Mine just arrived about two weeks ago and isn't in use yet because I need to do a little digging as I want to make a concrete base for it. (although that isn't needed if one uses all the guy cables)
I recently came across a surplus supply in eastern U.S. that has some of these. It looks like it might work in my antenna restricted area because it is, after all, "portable", and the restrictions here are worded in such a way as to restrict rooftop antennas, or those attached to the property in a perminate way.
This is a portable tower (tube mast type) that can be easily hauled in a pickup for use of a pretty good sized beam, if that's what one wants it for. The entire assembly is about 200 pounds, but can be split into two main assemblies for easier handling. (there is also a bag of guy cables and other needed materials). As I recall it will support two microwave feedhorns in an environment with 1/2" of ice and 75 MPH wind.(don't have my manual at hand)
What the AB577 amounts to is an aluminum sectionalized mast. Each mast section is five inches in diameter and five feet long. They are supported and cranked up by a device called a "launcher". The launcher is eight feet high and held to the ground with large spikes driven through the holes into the ground. The launcher has a crank to operate an elevator. Each section is cranked up with the elevator, through two "thrust bearing" type assemblies and then temporarily locked in place with a hand brake.
The elevator is let back down to the bottom of the launcher to allow installation of another five foot section under the one(s) that are locked above. A clamping device is installed to lock this new section to the one above, the brake is released, and the elevator is cranked to push this added section up with the rest of them, etc, etc, until all 8 sections are in. There are several guy cables used to keep this thing up, and they attach to thrust bearing type guy assemblies so as to allow the mast to be rotated inside the guywires, manually from the bottom. Or a remote rotor could be mounted at the top. (naturally one would want to mount the rotor and beam to the adapter on the top section before crankup. This adapter reduces the top of the mast down to about 2.5 inches O.D. and if that's too big for the rotor to clamp to, a piece of 1-7/8 inch pipe will fit down inside the top adapter and you can drill the added section to put a 3/8 inch bolt through it to match existing holes in the top adapter.)
There are some more details, but just thought to give a general description of the idea of it. You can e-mail: marsales1@aol.com for more information. They seem to have spare parts, manuals, and sometimes the extention kits that take these up to 75 feet. Price on mine was $350, but I saw one go for $265 on ebay last month. Guess the range of price depends like anything else surplus.
73
Jim
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W7FL
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 9, 2001 15:56
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Great Tower, great price
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Just put up the AB-577 with a Yaesu G-800DXA rotor and Tennadyne T-6 antenna. The rotor and antenna combination are about 35 lbs. I did the installation on a hill and did almost everything by myself. The only thing I didn't do was carry the launcher/base up the hill by myself, although I could have. The installation was easy and very safe. I am very pleased with the quality and strength of this tower.
Years ago I had an AB-577 but I didn't know what it was. A friend had brought one back from Germany after a hitch in the Army and ran a small beam on it. He passed it on to me and I had it for about 10 years with a 2 element quad. I was told that the Army had run some large Log Periodic antennas on these towers at times. I ended up giving it away to a club when I moved to a QTH that prevented it's further use..
Recently I rediscovered the AB-577 and that Ontario Surplus had them for sale. I bought a used /reconditioned model and had it shipped to SoCal. In spite of large shipping costs the total came to a little over $600. I consider this to be a great value. It's very high quality construction and very very strong(I've seen 100+mph winds with the quad and the tower didn't notice). I'm sure that it would carry a much larger antenna and rotor than what I'm currently using. It doesn't require a large amount of real estate to put up. It can be raised and lowered very safely by only one person. And you can put an antenna up 50 feet or as much as 75 with an available extension kit!!
W7FL
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K8DNP
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 18, 2000 09:01
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Great tower
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I ran the A3S for about 2 months. Added a small rotor at the top and everything worked just great. I would recommend this tower for small systems and temp systems.
If you have any questions feel free to email dave_pomeroy@voyager.net
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K8DNP
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 24, 2000 15:11
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great tower
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Put it up the first time by myself in about 2-1/2 hours. No problems and no climbing. It appears that it would hold 6 or 8 sq ft of antenna no problem. I'm putting my A3S up this week. 50 ft and cheap at the price.
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