http://ethics.tamu.edu/ethics/tvtower/tv3.htm
has some stills and video.
Mike N2MG
On Thu, 06 December 2001, Donald L Kerouac wrote:
> Some years ago, at an SBE convention in Houston, I toured the Senior Road
> Tower complex. A 2,000 ft. behemoth built to accommodate several 100KW
> FM's, a 5MW UHF TV and countless communications antennas. It's built to
> do the job in an area where hurricanes sometimes visit. It's quite
> something to stand at the base and consider the enormous column load
> consisting of the dead weight and the vectored down thrust of the guys.
> The top guys are about 1/2 mile long, weigh many tons each and have
> massive hydraulic dampeners to keep them from galloping in the wind. You
> can imagine the forces such guy assemblies could apply to the structure
> if wildly oscillating in the wind.
> Some of you may recall when this tower was originally erected about 20
> years ago. It collapsed, killing several workers and destroying the
> building underneath. Since the tower was being topped off, a camera crew
> was taping the whole thing for posterity. As memory serves me, the tower
> was at full height and the many ton UHF TV antenna was being hoisted into
> position. As I recall something in the rigging broke and the heavy
> antenna fell, breaking through guy wire assemblies on the way down. I
> believe four men rode the steel to the ground. I may be a bit fuzzy on
> the details. It's been a while since I was down there. It's a chilling
> video to view.
> The site was cleaned up and a new structure was erected and stands today.
> It's an incredible installation to tour but not open to the public.
> Don, K9NR
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