Why would there ever be a need to light a ham radio tower? Lights on a
tower are very expensive. If I remember right from my broadcast engineering
days; a typical flashing beacon light is very large (larger than you would
think) and is composed of two 620 watt light bulbs. I think the flashing
figures are so big that they really wouldn't fit well on 25G...but well on
55G. The bulbs are expensive. They don't make the 115 volt bulbs anymore,
so you have to run 220 volts up the tower. Typical side lights are 115
watts with two bulbs too.
I think the rules state that on commercial towers the voltage sag from the
bottom to the top has to under three percent. That means a lot of heavy
wire going to the top of the tower.
Also, the rules state that anything under 200 feet doesn't have to use
lights or be painted in alternate International Orange and International
White. Now that might be different if your tower is in the flight pattern
of some airport. The FAA will have a lot to say about that.
If I was going to light my tower, and I cannot figure out why anyone really
would want to except for vanity, I would use some 12 volt tail lights you
could get from any auto parts store. Use a 555 timer to flash them...and be
done with it.
The whole project sounds like a waist of time to me. I really don't want
the neighbors to notice the tower anyway.
IMHO
Lee
k0wa@southwind.net
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