Amateur Radio is a dandy hobby. Actually, it’s the “King of Hobbies,” said my late friend Don Stoner – author of many books of radio and computers. You need all conceivable skills to master ham radio. It’s not just soldering, mechanical assembling, but it can be 3D printing, woodworking, welding, arborist work, heavy equipment operator. Yep, it’s all in there.
Until it isn’t. That’s where I find myself today.
20-years Before the (Radio) Mast
Around 2005, or thereabouts, just a few years after we moved to the wilds of East Texas, I chanced on a deal for a 52-foot Tasjian crank-up ham radio tower. $300.
Like many “parts” in what can be a fairly complex hobby, this one needed a bit of work. For example, there was no “fold-over base” for it. Poof! Another $284-dollars out the door. That got me a welded cage-like structure designed to be laid in a huge concrete cube, set six-feet into the ground. Nothing short of a Cat D6 with a rock-ripper will move the base we poured. Another $250 in materials. Six men mixed and poured Quickrete.
I didn’t have an antenna – an AS-4 WB version – with the 40-meter add-on element showed up. Elaine doesn’t know the price to this day. Nor did she learn about 125-foot runs of Times LMR-400 cable (which aren’t free…). Or the Yaesu rotator, rotator cable, grounding straps…ham radio towers can be complicated on their own.
With all the parts, the base carefully poured and cured, it was a simple matter (with a helper by the name of Daniel) to put a line halfway up the tower which collapses down to just 22-feet in the nested, down position, by the way.
With an 8-foot 2-by for a gin pole, and a hundred-foot hunk of 1/4-inch wire rope, the tower was finally up. Pulled into position by our tractor.
A final visit from Daniel, a few days later when fresh internal raising cables arrived, the installation of a 12-volt ATV winch *(I knew age would take the joy out of manual tower cranking, sooner or later, and it was up.
It was a joy to use. Literally “point and talk” anywhere in the world. The collection of good radios, a 2-thousand watt (PEP) amplifier, and even the slightest bit of patience. In fact, it was so good that it took some of the pleasure out of stalking rare DX on 20-meters.
Times Change, Though
Here about 5-years ago, lightning (not a blow-over the tower sized bolt, just a small strike) and the AS-4 stopped working on 20 and 40 meters. Aluminum antenna traps can be zapped if you give Ma nature enough time.
It still worked OK on the 10 and 15-meter bands, though. It stayed put.
Then, a year ago, I decided that some low-band wire antennas needed to be hung – Christmas ornament-like – from the long boom of the crippled AS-4.
My consigliere supervised as paracord was pulled up and wire antennas hoisted. The K4TR double-sized version of the W5GI Mystery Antenna and a 20-meter version of the ZS2BKW,
It played reasonably well. But innovation is a tough master. I needed the tower’s wire elements removed to put up an experimental scalar antenna.
So, I went out to the ends of the K4TR/ W4GI monster and let down the paracords – both flown up and over with drones, topping 80 foot pines.
NORMALLY – the story would end right here. The antenna’s ends would drop, and the tower motor turned on. The tower would slide down into nesting and progress could resume. Sorry, Charley. Not this time.
Trouble Piling Up
As of this morning, here’s the Trouble List
- The tower (and extension mast for the AS-4 beam) is stuck in the up position at 63 feet.
- The ATV crank-up motor has seized, there is no “free-spooling option” on this winch.
- The trusty Fluke says internal motor wiring is “open.”
- The west end of the K4TR is nailed by tree growth to the 80-foot level of a pine; the far end at about 70-feet of a similar tree east of the tower.
- The middle of the K4TR is immoveable from the 55-foot level because the hoisting halyard slipped into the tight-squeeze between the AS4’s boom and the director (out at the north) end of the boom.
Pulling down any harder on the K4TR threatens to bend the boom on the AS-4.
Cutting down the offending pines is certainly doable, but Stumpy isn’t going to bring a logging truck out for just two pines. It’d be crazy to ask Claude to bring out the “whole tree chipper” for two trees, and besides, two pines (big as they are) won’t be worth the power logging toys.
When in Doubt, Plan
As of this morning, there is a New Plan. Parts have started to arrive.
- A new ATV winch will be installed just under the existing winch.
- It’s lead will go up parallel the old wire rope and the new wire rope will be attached to the old one with four Crosby clamps.
- The new winch will then pull up the tower (about 500 pounds worth) an inch – just far enough to take tension off the (locked) old wire rope.
- Which will then be snipped with the bolt cutters.
- The new winch will back down the nesting tower…
- And then next weekend, my neighbor (the incredible mechanic) will bring down his big tractor and between two tractors, a ton of Crosby clip, some snatch blocks, and a hundred foot hunk of wire rope, we will gently lay-over the tower which will (hopefully) be nested at 22-foot.
And if Luck smiles on us, it will miss the south rack of solar panels by 2-feet which is what I designed in a scotch-induced fog 20-some years ago.
After that?
Reassembly – inspect the blown-out trap and see if it’s worth fixing. Then decide if it’s worth the hassle to put up another beam, cobweb, or quad on the tower. Wire antennas may not have the “point and work ’em” capacity of big directional antennas. But they’re a hell of a lot easier on the wallet.
I’ll keep you posted on any new “towering thoughts” if they come along.
Write when you get rich,
George@Ure.net
Unrelated but…………..Elon has played DJT. Access all areas pass to the vault. Clean sweep of the data and now the game is afoot. Who do you back – a bumbling criminal narcissist or a flawed visionary? What would it take for you to change your mind? Hope is not a strategy. Just who is The Man in the High Castle?
G.A. STEWART: Elon Musk just called out Trump and the MAGA movement by claiming that Donald J. Trump is on The Jeffrey Epstein List.
Have readers noticed the glaring silence from the Alternative Media? I just scanned this mornings biggest Alternative Media websites, not a peep after that first shocking day of Trump versus Musk. But certainly a great deal of anti-Musk sentiment. I see this as a major inflection point for the Alternative Media.
This is going to be a really big test for Alex Jones at InfoWars.com, Jim Hoft at TheGatewayPundit.com, and other vendors in the Alternative Media who are selling Donald J. Trump. This also includes MAGA supporters and the Progressive Left, who will soon begin to wonder why the Trump Administration and Democrats backed off publishing The Jeffrey Epstein List.
I suspect that both Republican and Democratic politicians and their pundits will not touch Elon Musk’s accusation that Trump is on The Jeffrey Epstein List. Everyone will just slink quietly away from the edge of the cliff. But it will not work.
https://theageofdesolation.com/nostradamus/2025/06/07/surprise-surprise-surprise/
I theorize that a great many “Sir Humphry App;ebys” — perhaps not all, but very many — are on the clients serviced list. Some may have only accepted plane rides and attendance to fancy parties, so chances are there’s a friends list and a separate full-service client list.
The public would never understand the difference. Hence, anathema to all.
re: “Total Recall”, 1990
feat: Vilos Cohaagen’s Glass House
JC,
A possible future candidate for “Governor of Mars” appears to have deleted his post alleging Presidential malfeasance.
DOJ and the staff who convicted Epstein already stated Trump was not on the list. Musk has taken back (and apologized for) the comment.
Would YOU demand such a list be released, if YOU were on it?
There IS a lot of conspiracy noise on this one, including the theory that Bondi hasn’t released the list or vids because they’re in the possession of the Mossad.
In the absence of news, people will always invent “news…”
did nostradamus say that it was alright to invade a country and demand rights ,aka people with foreign flags holding American citizens hostage? It might be time.
JC, well you can look but don’t touch lol, The First Lady boasts of her previous sordid past (R rated photos):
https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/donald-trump-melania-trump-knauss-first-lady-erections
‘It appears the First Lady is rather proud of the images: the new White House website lists the cover shoot as one of her greatest achievements. Recently it has become a source of controversy as questions are raised over how Melania secured her US visa.’
Husband DJT shares same sordid photographic past::
https://www.yahoo.com/news/epstein-showed-photos-trump-topless-215004755.html
‘Jeffrey Epstein showed off photos of Donald Trump with “topless young women” sitting in his lap, the controversial author Michael Wolff has alleged.
The pedophile financier had about half a dozen pictures which showed Trump by the pool with multiple young women, Wolff claimed on his podcast, Fire & Fury, Thursday. They were taken in the “late ’90s” at Epstein’s Palm Beach home, where he victimized dozens of underage girls along with his procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell, Wolff said.’
c,
One of the coinkydoinks of history is that Mr. Wolff just happened to be a neighbor of one of Patty Hearst’s kidnappers, Angela Atwood (“General Lindberg”). The latter apparently perished when the SLA house burned down in a confrontation with the LAPD. It seems that Mr. Wolff used the tragic event to spark his career in journalism by writing about her. It’s perhaps apropos to file his work in the hearst chaser folder.
“IQ lower than his waist line, totally enslaved by the zionists and suffering from advanced dementia..living on steroids’ and Ritalin and smearing himself daily with testosterone cream…no… if you voted for himyou made a terrible mistake and America is suffering because of it…there was No choice…next time…do not choose and then try and buffalo others into acceptig that you were conned. Musk is totally right about tRump, but tRump is totally right about Musk” -GD/TID
I suggest you replace traps, baluns, arrestors, and everything else you can, while you can. I think about rebuilding sportscars, where you never rebuild an engine without replacing the oil and water pumps and you never pull an engine without surfacing the flywheel and replacing the clutch. When you add new stuff, these become weak links and will generally all fail within a few months. Spending money you don’t absolutely need to, today, is often a much better investment than the time and labor you burn by having to do a PITA job twice…
Home Owners Ins…pregrind/prerust weak points support legs prior to big storm rolling thru Uretopea Outback Ranch & Spa area.
Do same with offending Pine trees…will look like a micro blast hit the area..plausible deniability is key for this scenario.
Think of it as accident prevention work – ya know SAFETY 1st!
There now we can get on to more pertinent scheisse – like DISCLOSURE, as in youse all are being DISCLOSED..slowly, but surely.
Got a couple of minutes today ? Might as well check this out..as they have been checking U out, for a while – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR6V5MsNmVg
ET bee looking forward to meeting US all – You looking forward to meeting ET’s ?
My first HF antenna arrangement was a pair of Radio Shack 10′ mast sections to make a 20′ mast, anchored to the corner post of my front porch roof support, with a Radio Shack ground plane CB vertical antenna that I trimmed to work on 20 meters. I worked stations around the world with that and my first rig, a Swan 240.
A few years later I found an aluminum 42′ TV antenna tower that someone wanted taken down at their house in town, so I obliged them and gave them $50 for the tower. A friend in Dallas found me a used Cushcraft A3 with a rotor, so I was in hog heaven.
I assembled the tower on the ground, took apart all the elements and traps on the A3 and cleaned the connections before putting it all back together. I took the bottom tower section and attached a piece of 3/4″ pipe to each leg and made steel brackets to go into the Sackcrete base so I could hinge the base of the tower. After buying steel cable and attaching guy wires to the 6″ steel pipe anchor posts I had set in concrete in the front, back and side yards, I put my trailer winch on the post in the back yard, ran the cable over the roof of the house to the top of the tower, and put my wife on the winch (put the wench on the winch). The plan was for me to push the tower up by hand as she cranked, but after a couple of cranks she pulled it out of my hands. All I could do was stand and watch as it rose majestically into position.
Me, too, except i paid nothing because I grew up next door to a RTV repair shop and there was a tower sales & service shop one street over at the end of the block. I strapped the mast to the eaves of my parents’ house and when i got the aluminum tower (tornado twisted) I scrapped the two trashed sections and ended up with a 30 footer strapped to the back chimney that was solid enough to climb…
call in a crane company, have them lift the entire tower, after they have lifted it the 1/2″ to take the pressure off the bolts so you can unbolt the one bolt at the base keeping the swing bolts in place, and lower it to the ground in a laid down orientation.
NO climbing the tower by you or your friend to try to unjam the slipped cable, or running the risk of it getting away from you as you try to get it lowered (crane crew will climb the tower to attach their lowering rigging.
At your age you have NO reason to try to save a thousand dollars at the risk of serious injuries if you start to lose control of a multi thousand pound tall tower.
Sometimes you have to take down a tower, if you want to be a hero.
Ending of: Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UUXIVZ9smkQ
Best of luck with your antenna project. I have learned to be satisfied with my end fed wire since HOA Diana is quite clear about what gets put up within sight of the house. While the thought of 1/4 inch wire cable under tension and a dreaded “SPROING” is always a possibility, I am confident you have it all under control. I use wire cable runs, from a spool of cable for garage doors scored from an estate sale someplace long ago, overhead end to end in the hoops to suspend ties for maters and such. While working in the hooptys tying maters yesterday I stepped back and got tangled up with a cart. Backward I went and apparently the only thing I could grab was the cable. SPROING was heard and down I went down landing on the next row of peppers. Jeffery was right there barking his ass off followed shortly by Diana and the other 2 dogs. Holy crap she covered the 40 yards from the house to the hooptys in Olympic championship time. No injuries except for a few young peppers and one mater that got pulled from it’s pot when I tugged too hard when repairing the cable.
Stay safe. 73
I’ve been paying for Youtube to avoid bringing down a 25′ galvanized self-supporting TV tower solo. First the hydraulics on the tractor gave out, necessitating repairs. Now, it won’t quit raining. Bring it down solo with a cable and tractor is relatively easy. Theoretically I could use a gin pole to pick it up, but it usually easier to muscle it up and slide a ladder under it until the angle is sufficient that I can hoist it with the tractor and 1/4″ permanently attached cable. Maybe I’ll get a round tuit in a few weeks. Lightning EMP fried the coupling box again, I wager. And worst of all, we are in chigger season here in redbug nirvana. I pick up two walking down the driveway to the mailbox most days. Level 4 storm warning out for late this evening. Maybe a little wind will clear on the redbugs, and leave me. That wouldn’t be good for the antenna.
Oh crap – working in this kind of weathger, however, does insure superior performance of the finished installation. Um…if you survive to enjoy it…
So, installation roulette as a ritual sacrifice offering to the antenna gods increases antenna performance? I should be pulling signals from 150 mi if that were true.
My main issue right now is wet black clay. I can barely keep the tires afloat on gravel two-track. Need a week or so of dried crust to work with. May try to mow a little this PM. Got to keep the panther habitat under control. Saw a little half-grown western puma scampering for cover about one about 1 mile distant down in the creek bottom yesterday. Just because I have seen one close by in a couple of years doesn’t mean they aren’t watching.
“I should be pulling signals from 150 mi if that were true.”
Why wouldn’t you be? With the 30′ tower I strapped to Mom & Dad’s chimney and a 7′ mast, I could pull UHF stations from 250 miles and VHF stations from well over 200 miles, once I got ahold of a Winegard “deep fringe” antenna. (Probably not quite fair to say this. TV antennas tend to be LOS, but broadcasters both ran thousand foot towers, and did weird things like broadcast from blimps or aircraft which were many thousands of feet up. A Cleveland broadcaster transmitted on channels 91 and 93 from an altitude of 42,000 ft…) Using Dad’s Radiart stacked conical (the “lazy X”) I could pull stations from about 120 miles away. I don’t do TV any more, but I should think the broadcast stations on subchannel carriers would like such an antenna.
Not on flatland, Ray.
Check out the 10,000 year old tool on page
206.
https://universeinsideyou.aflip.in/prehistoric-megastructures#page/195
As a kind of test – I told “The Mrs” a story last night. It had been a long, hot day. In the 90’s.., and we are sitting out by the koi pond with really tall mint juleps., [ Where did she find those glasses!?] and enjoying the temps drop. She is a good audience., as she listens carefully and waits towards the end to ask any questions – which she always has a couple., like:
“Couldn’t they trace those propane tanks?”
She said it was a great story – “You should write that one down.”
It was the second job I ever took. At the time I had no idea it would turn into a near eighteen year “career” [ I never wanted a ‘career’.] and slowly take over my life. But, with no regrets at all. I had a good time doing it. Helped a lot of people and the bad guys lost.
So – I decided I will write it down. It may not be ‘exactly’ as it happened – but it will be exactly as I remember it. All the names and places will be different – even if I recall them properly.
I will think about it., for a day, or two – then write it. I will either post it, or send it to GU to decide if it is too long and needs a separate page / link.
I’ve thought about a special new page” Readers Writes” – It’s something I wish I’d thought of before andy spent a lot of time on his site – but maybe (no, OBVIOUSLY) it is THE pLAN. Still, we can add=-to modify or improve…
If you do this, I suggest you place it behind the Peoplenomics paywall. Allow anyone who contributes to actually make a buck from Amazon or the 8000 Indian publishers who offer POD services and hardcover (and leatherbound) books with low (or no) minimum, should they wish to actually publish.
d’lynn grabs me more like L’Amour than Cussler or anyone else, and like L’Amour, he could serialize some of his tales as short or condensed stories in appropriate media. I don’t know what has replaced “Wild West,” “Ellery Queen,” or “True Crime,” but “Readers’ Digest” is still around and the RD crowd would absolutely go nuts over his stuff.
Remember, Ray Bradbury was a “nobody” until he serialized “Fahrenheit 451” in a “nothing” “Esquire-wannabee” magazine called “Playboy…”
BTW, d’lynn: If you decide to do this, I suggest you use real names in your first draft so you’re not cluttering your mind with fake names. THEN, after you have a manuscript, use your favorite word processor’s “find and replace” feature to replace all the instances of each name, at the same time.
“So – I decided I will write it down. It may not be ‘exactly’ as it happened – but it will be exactly as I remember it.”
Lost Highway (1997) A David Lynch film
[The police speak to Fred on the subject of video cameras]
Fred: I like to remember things my own way.
Detective: What do you mean by that?
Fred: How I remember them. Not necessarily the way they happened.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xP-j5Q8-19U
https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lost_Highway_(film)
Two TV towers, lost in an ice storm in nineteen seventy something. Both “free.” I threw 2/3 of mine away, and fixed up the remaining 25 foot section with a big-ass horse farm gate hinge, and a”Y” stand to receive the tilted tower-ette for ground level work. It carried a pissy little Krushed Krap Jr Tribander, a 10-element 2M beam, and a discone on top, all twisted with a CDR AR-22 cheap rotator. Worked fine for years.
This guy I know OF, got the other one, a crank-up. To save time he was climbing it as his pal lost control of the winch. The thing telescoped, scissoring off all his toes, and then the whole affair fell over in a crashpile with him on top. Cudda been worse: he cudda been UNDER it. Now, he wears size 4 EEEEEEEE special order shoes at $800 a custom made pair.
This why I like wire antennas.
Short tilt towers for TV.
re: 316
feat: matters of prudence
Fellow Brethren,
Yesterday evening a gathering of fans for UFC 316 took place at Prudential Center. Allegedly the latter company sponsor’s logo dates to an 1890’s interpretation of Laurel Hill, Seacaucus, NJ. Dutch colonists had named the area Slangenbergh (“Snake Mountain”). Its northern slopes housed the Hudson County Lunatic Asylum from 1873 to 1939.
The “New York Post” uploaded video of yesterday’s victorious post-Apeptic entrance to UFC316 ringside by President Trump fist-bumping fellow attendees to the cultured strains of Kid Rock’s “American BadA**”. First Daughter Ivanka followed clearly having mastered an unpretentious regal entrance so beloved by commoners privy to such spectacle. Secretary of State Rubio found himself spun around courtesy of a Presidential Headlock for the purpose of the Dynamic Duo acknowledging the crowd. Closing moments of the video clip witnessed that great Canadian “BTO” anthem of the lunchbox crowd, “Takin’ Care of Business”. A camera focused on the President guarded behind by boxer Mike Tyson sporting a fashionably suit-attired look. Here is a YouTube link to the “New York Post” video of artful-doge-absent grand entrance:
https://youtu.be/RKymXpNY-Q0
Upon purchase of the Volcano Ranch, I had grand visions of a tower in the back yard. Used towers are simply not available on the Big Island, and shipping one in from the mainland was extremely costly. Then the foundation… a six foot cube excavated into layered lava rock would have cost more than the tower and shipping, according to a ham contractor friend. “Poof!” went the tower dream. The slab foundation of the house has a nice wide concrete apron, so I decided to put up a sturdy mast at the peak of the roof. Home brewed a U-bracket with single large bolt hinge for a tilt-over 2″ pipe. 10 feet up a pipe reducer/adapter took it down to 1-1/2″. Put a pulley at the top of the eaves and installed a boat trailer winch on an angle bracket at ground level, so I can crank the mast over. Oh, yeah, replaced the winch cable with stainless cable. Zinc/steel only lasts a year or two outdoors in this tropical rainforest. I added another 15′ fence pipe to slide into the 20 foot mast, but I don’t have the guts to extend it all the way. And I don’t need it. I went for a lightweight KIO hexbeam for 6-20 meters. Not a lot of gain, but the directivity is good for steering a signal anywhere around the rim from the center of the Pacific here. I’m not a rabid DX hound anyway. I have separate shorter pipe masts strapped to the house eaves for UHF/VHF beams on Az/El mounts that I have talked to the space station on, and another mast for U/V QFH antennas on preamps for receiving satellites. I have a 80-6 Buckmaster OCF dipole along the fence line, and a 150′ longwire into the back yard that serves for 160, 60, and all the other bands also. At this point I’m glad I don’t have a tower headache.
You know, one of those ziegu vg4 verticals on xmt on the roof with some added wire under it would rock the xmt side and the horiz receive ants would remain quite – or stick a loop up around the gutter level ofo the ghouse… 33 feet a side and nvis all freaking day on he interisland web…just sayingh…
I see folks like antennas but people use satellite:
Musk’s DOGE Goons Surreptitiously Transmitted Reams of White House Data
“Elon Musk’s goons at the Department of Government Efficiency transmitted a large amount of data—all of it undetected—using a Starlink Wi-Fi terminal they installed on top of the White House, according to a new report.”
“At the time, DOGE said installing Starlink was intended to address connection “dead zones” on the White House compound.”
https://au.yahoo.com/news/musk-doge-goons-surreptitiously-transmitted-230801930.html
Dem Hero Abrego Helped Kill a Gang Member’s Mother
Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia feared for his life from the 18th Street Gang because he participated in the murder of an 18th Street gang members’ mother. He is also accused of trafficking thousands of people, including children, and we know what they mostly want children for, transported MS-13 gang members, abused women under his control, and solicited child porn.
https://www.independentsentinel.com/dem-hero-abrego-helped-kill-a-gang-members-mother/
Woopsie…
______
Armed citizen stops two violent carjackings – and waits for police with criminals
Good Samaritan in Georgia stops 2 violent carjackings, holds suspect at gunpoint until police arrive to make the arrest.
https://rumble.com/v6uem3h-armed-citizen-stops-two-violent-carjackings-and-waits-for-police-with-crimi.html
Hero of the day…?
______
Flood the system: US attorney unleashes new task force to crack down on blue state’s sanctuary policies
US Attorney for the District of California Bill Essayli is taking major action to crack down on “sanctuary” policies. He’s launching “Operation Guardian Angel,” which is a task force made up of assets from ICE, HSI, DEA, FBI, ATF, and Border Patrol, to begin scanning a criminal database every single day to identify arrested illegal aliens in local jurisdictions that DOJ can charge with felony illegal-reentry. “They’ve made it almost impossible for ICE to do their job, issue detainers and get criminal illegal immigrants out of jails. So what we’re doing instead is we’re going to start issuing warrants,” he told Fox News.
They can ignore a detainer, but they cannot ignore a criminal arrest warrant.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/flood-system-us-attorney-unleashes-new-task-force-crack-down-blue-states-sanctuary-policies
Teen suspended for using term ‘illegal alien’ just beat the system and cashed in…
The left has weaponized language. That’s what “political correctness” really is: control disguised as kindness. Calling someone an “illegal alien” isn’t hateful or racist; it’s legally accurate. That’s the correct term. But in today’s twisted world of Cultural Marxism, stating a fact can get you labeled a bigot, suspended from school, or worse. This is how they do it: they control the language, then the thoughts, then the ideas. That’s not kindness; it’s tyranny. And it’s not freedom.
And thankfully, this time, the left messed with the wrong kid.
https://revolver.news/2025/06/teen-suspended-for-using-term-illegal-alien-just-beat-the-system-and-cashed-in/
Slightly off topic, but still STS: I was curious about various VOIP options including Magic Jack earlier. I had a cheap($25) Ooma Telo box from Ebay, and installed it on my current low latency net connection. So far, so good – almost POTS standard. The same can’t be said for the handset that came with it. The handset is good, but runs bluetooth and has occasional odd noises according to folks I talk to. My best suggestion regarding this is to find a good phone that worked well on the POTS line and just plug that one into the Telo box. As much as I’d like to keep the POTS line for redundancy, I can’t really justify the cost, so it will be going away soon. Depending on options and location, the Ooma system costs between $8 and $20 per month for a phone number. Magic Jack may or may not be cheaper overall. YMMV.