Chuck McCown with some of the more unusual mounts he offers: an ice shield and a 800-M-TOW-FACE-26-26 Tower Face Mount
So what do you get when you combine a fifth-generation metal worker descended from a family of blacksmiths, apply training as a Steamfitter, add four years studying Electrical Engineering at BYU plus a business degree? No joke, you get Chuck McCown, of McCown Technology Corp.
McCown has applied metal-working savvy to the tower industry by offering “unusual tower mounts” in addition to a wide array of products to distributors. “Someone may have a Rohn25, for instance,” McCown said. “Not stout, but want to attach a 3-foot dish to it. We can design a mount that will work for that site and not create overstress.” He has also produced a series of angle-iron leg mounts that work with that tricky-to-deal-with type of structure. Tower companies rent by the feet, McCown observed, so his job is to help maximize the revenue of their vertical real estate.
A brief run-through of types of mounts McCown offers shows they have the market covered: Basic SM Mount, Basic Angle Iron Tower Mount, HD Pole Mount, Chain Mount Cambium 450 AP Tower Mount, Double Clamp Pipe to Pipe Stando, Ice Shield, Horizontal Member Tower Mount, Side Arm Tower Mount, Slope Mount – Stando, V Block Pipe Stando Mount and many more. Of course if it’s not on there, customizing one is always an option.
“Our products help WISPs obtain higher performance, better connections, quicker installations and lower total cost per installation alongside our patented Stinger™ line of antenna products,” he said. With over 20 years of CAD/CAM design, prototyping, and production experience, McCown’s team can take a product through any stage of the development cycle — from start to finish. Printed circuit board development is a specialty of McCown Technology, as are rack-mounted surge protectors. His blacksmithing descendants would be proud as he also specializes in steel fabrication, with CNC plasma cutting and MIG/TIG welding. “Steel sales, repair work and mobile fabrication is an ever growing part of our business. We work closely with general contractors to help solve tricky on-site structural, accessory, utility and aesthetic steel fabrication problems,” McCown said.
McCown is also part of “the oldest and continuously running gang of WISP experts on the planet”: The Animal Farm Users Group. “All the major manufacturers recognize that the AFMUG list is the defacto tech support motherload of expert advice for owning and operating a WISP. Networking experts, antenna experts, RF experts, even frequency coordinators and communication lawyers hang out there,” he said.
In his down time, when he is not skiing or flying a glider, McCown has patented several antenna designs with a new one pending.
By Jim Fryer, Managing Editor, Inside Towers
April 7, 2017
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