Sure, crankups can fail if not properly operated and maintained, and can
cause serious injuries if safety precautions are not followed when working
on them. But the same holds true for guyed towers.
Yeah, if I had my druthers I'd feel much better about having a guyed tower
than my crankup, but I'm not so sure you can really prove that crankups are
inherently less safe than guyed towers. Probably thousands of crankups are
in use by hams all over the world -- it'll be mighty hard to prove that all
of us are crazy people inviting disaster.
On the other hand, I think there are a couple of better arguments. First,
crankups are *much* more expensive than guyed towers for an equivalent
antenna wind load. It seems to me that the town is imposing a substantial
financial hardship on you, and I'd be surprised if what they are doing is
legal (I'm no expert --- check with an attorney.) Second, if you are
planning a large antenna windload (you do want a stacked array, don't you?),
there may not be a crankup available that will safely handle the load.
I would get in touch with the ARRL legal assistance crew on this one.
Perhaps PRB-1 would come into play -- the town is not supposed to restrict
antennas based on aethetic criteria, and the crankup-vs-guyed decision
certainly has nothing to do with safety.
And if you lose, crankups aren't so bad -- you learn to live with it...
Good luck,
73, Dick, WC1M
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Meehan <mmeehan@wlv.hp.com>
To: towertalk@contesting.com <towertalk@contesting.com>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Date: Tuesday, June 09, 1998 8:24 PM
Subject: [TowerTalk] Crank-up Horror Stories...
>
>Hi Tower Talkers,
>
>*** Please help if you can, this could make a difference at my antenna
>hearing ***
>
>I am going before the full planning commission in my town at the end of
>July and would like to get stories about misfortunes and failures of
>telescopic crank-up towers.
>
>My little town let me submit plans and computations for two guyed rohn
>towers. On the day of the first administrative hearing, they imposed a
>condition on my permit where only crank-up towers could be used.
>
>So I next applied for a minor modification for the use of fixed
>structures which was denied.
>
>So now I am trying to build a stronger case for the use of fixed guyed
>towers. They do not seem to understand the concept of leverage, so maybe
>some horror stories could sway them.
>
>As usual, I will summarize the responses.
>
>
>Kindest Regards,
>
>-Mike Meehan, W6MM <www.hp.com/go/hpeesof>
>
>
>
>--
>FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
>Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
>Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
>Problems: owner-towertalk@contesting.com
>Search: http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search.htm
>
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
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Problems: owner-towertalk@contesting.com
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