Towertalk
[Top] [All Lists]

[TowerTalk] Tower Concerns continued

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Tower Concerns continued
From: n4zr@contesting.com (Pete Smith)
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2001 02:16:42 -0500
At 02:50 PM 1/15/01 EST, K7LXC@aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 1/15/01 11:47:23 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
>mmurphy@n-focus.com writes:
>
>> I have put up, taken down and serviced a number of towers.  And it simply
>>  amazes me what hams "get away" with.  It may work for a while, maybe
>>  forever. 
>
>    No kidding! A guy down the street had his 25G housebracket lag bolted in 
>with lag bolts that weren't even long enough reach the studs - ouch!

Many years ago (statute of limitations has run - hi) I belonged to a ham
club at a Federal agency in Washington that had a Mosley CL-36 on 20 feet
of Rohn 25 tower.  Because the government agency wouldn't let us bolt to
the roof structure, we simply "guyed" the bottom of the tower to several
cast-iron vent-pipes with some heavy wire we had around.  We used the same
wire and the same anchors to guy the top of the tower, with the wire just
twisted on itself at each end!  

This antenna was 110 feet above ground on an 8-story building, and the
amazing thing is it lasted at least 5 years before being destroyed in a
microburst.  Amazingly too, the tower stayed on the roof even then.  I
cringe at the thought of how stupid we were, and what was at risk.  

God truly looks after fools and hams, sometimes both at once.

73, Pete N4ZR
Contesting is!

The World Contest Station Database 
is waiting for your input at
http://www.qsl.net/n4zr 



--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/towertalk
Submissions:              towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests:  towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-towertalk@contesting.com


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>