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[TowerTalk] Tower concerns

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Tower concerns
From: ae4mr@arrl.org (Dave Armbrust)
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 15:09:53 -0500
> > Stop and think about what you are saying.  You seem to be
> stating that this
> >  can be done in a couple of hours!   For this two hour service
> Rohn charges
> >  $3,000 plus $300 per hour or approximately $3,600.  That is $1,800 per
> hour!
>
>     Okay, I didn't say that Rohn was going to do them or what
> they'd charge.
> No one that reads this reflector is going to pay $3k so that's
> not even in
> the realm of reality for us. My local PE does all my tower plans
> and charges
> me $350 to do the calcs and stamp the plans. If you go to an
> engineering firm
> or manufacturer, the sky's the limit.
>
>     Regardless of what they charge you, it does only take a
> couple of hours
> to do the calcs.

It appears I can do the math myself in about 30 minutes.  It is really not
that tough.

> >  Also bear in mind that this same engineer is not going to try
> to give you
> >  the best structure he can for the money.  He is going to want to over
> >  engineer this as much as is possible for a whole verities of reasons.
> >
>     What he's going to do is to give you the minimum specs to meet your
> building requirements. Saying that *he* is going to "over
> engineer" something
> is a gross generalization and in most cases not even true.

For what it is worth I think paying $350 to engineer to tell me my limit is
10' for a self supporting Rohn 45g tower for my QTH is over engineering the
problem.  What is your term for it?  A few other terms pop into my head too.

> >  Implying hams are cheap and are looking for something for nothing is a
> cheap
> >  shot!
> >
>     That's because they're a bunch of CHEAP GUYS! Give me a break - I've
> worked in ham radio retail and ham radio manufacturing and hams typically
> want everything and really balk, suck the air out of the room,
> etc. when you
> start mentioning what something costs. I've been a ham for 40
> years and some
> things haven't changed much.

There you go with another cheap shot at hams as a group.  Frankly I really
resent it.  For every person you can bring me that think hams are cheap I
will bring you a 100 that say salesmen are crooks.

Let's drop the cheap shots OK?

>     Don't get me wrong - we all love customers that understand
> that there is
> value in something and that they aren't getting screwed when they buy
> something. And there are many of them - thank you!

Show us the value and we will beat a path to your door.  Look how much we
pay for radios, antenna and yes towers because we want the best.  We most
certainly, as a group, we are not cheap.

--

73 - Dave Armbrust, AE4MR


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