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Re: [TowerTalk] Stadiums as Tower/Contest Locations

To: "Bill Parry" <BPARRY@RGV.RR.COM>,"'Gary \"Joe\" Mayfield'" <gary_mayfield@hotmail.com>,<towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Stadiums as Tower/Contest Locations
From: Jim Lux <jimlux@earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2007 13:28:13 -0700
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
At 06:18 AM 7/4/2007, Bill Parry wrote:
>Interesting idea. (Speaking only of college stadiums.) I bet it would cost a
>lot to take one of those things down. You would probably have to hire a
>really really big crane! I had originally thought of using the light
>standards to get our long wires higher for field day but was told to forget
>using them. I had thought about using a bow and arrow from the top of
>seating area in the stadium to shoot a small rope over the lights. I was
>told that the "aiming of those lights was a big deal and if I screwed it up
>I would have to pay to get it "re-aimed". I think there is supposed to be a
>certain number of candlepower of light on the field so the players can see.

Some years ago, I wrote some software to figure out the aiming.  It's 
not so much the brightness, but the evenness and lack of confusing 
shadows that's important.  It's a tedious chore to do the 
aiming.  YOu figure out where the "center of the beam" hits the 
ground, and put out little flags on the field for each lamp.  Then 
someone goes up in a bucket truck or on the ladders, and you turn on 
one lamp at a time while someone stands on the aim point and signals 
which way to move the fixture.

Not a whole lot different than setting lighting instruments in a 
theater. (and, in fact, these days, there's all kinds of cool 
lighting design software that lets you figure out what it's going to 
look like ahead of time.)



>High school stadiums, on the other hand are used frequently at night during
>the school year. This requires some forethought but Field Day is in June and
>few schools are using these facilities during June, in fact many districts
>are shut down for a couple of weeks during this time.

Graduations?

But the shutdown might actually be a hindrance... they might want 
their grounds crew there.


>In the past few years there have been some court cases that require school
>districts to give equal access to facilities to everyone if access is given
>to anyone. Unfortunately, this has forced public school districts to be VERY
>careful about how they let facilities be used. If your local school board
>gets involved, you can probably expect to be turned down.


Might try private or parochial schools.


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