> > What's the deal with putting the bolts in the way Rohn specifies?
N1RJ wrote:
> The reason is that it's much easier to spot a missing nut if
> it's on the outside. A bolt that is inserted from the bottom
> and missing it's nut will fall out and the resulting hole
> will be obvious to anyone climbing the tower.
Aha! That phrasing rings a bell. I knew I'd seen something about this in
writing somewhere. Check out page 33 of the 3rd edition of "Tower Climbing
Safety and Rescue", available from ARRL. It talks about checking tower bolts
before climbing, and says pretty-much what Roger said. However, the comments
specifically refer to angle steel towers with members that are bolted
together. The text says hollow rod or round construction presents a
different set of unique inspection issues (like checking weep holes to make
sure they're open and not leaking a lot of rust.)
I'm not so sure missing nuts would be more obvious inside or outside a Rohn
25/45/55 tower. I climbed a friend's 100' Rohn 45 tower yesterday and I have
a clear mental image of the nuts on the inside of the tower, yet I can't
picture the bolt heads on the outside of the tower. When you climb a tower
like this, you can see all three inside faces, but one outside face is away
from you. Perhaps on this type of tower it's better to insert the bolts
outside-in, like it seems just about everyone on this reflector has done.
Consensus?
73, Dick WC1M
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