It begs the question: Was the tower or guy wire sitting in hurricane salt
brine water?
In over 45 years of working on commercial and ham towers, many in a salt air
enviroment, Ive never heard of a tower that supposedly looked fine just
suddenly collapse.
Guy wire rots from the inside, if it had surface rust it was already
suspect.
There is much more to this story than has been forthcoming so far.
Carl
KM1H
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Robinson" <markrob@mindspring.com>
To: <kd4e@verizon.net>; "Dan Cisson" <n4gnr@alltel.net>
Cc: "Richard Joey Fiero II W5TFW" <w5tfw@arrl.net>;
<towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 9:13 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Tower ACCIDENT
> Is there a way of gauging the amount of rust on a tower leg - it is pretty
> scary to think that a bottom section that looks OK could be badly rusted
> on
> the inside and collapse on you. I don't like climbing towers at the best
> of
> times but this is very worrying as the tower ages.
>
>
> Mark N1UK G3ZZM
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "kd4e" <kd4e@verizon.net>
> To: "Dan Cisson" <n4gnr@alltel.net>
> Cc: "Richard Joey Fiero II W5TFW" <w5tfw@arrl.net>;
> <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, 26 June, 2007 8:59 PM
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Tower ACCIDENT
>
>
>> Dan & Joey,
>>
>> We do not have enough information yet.
>>
>> Joey is on the 6M list and many of the guys prayed
>> and encouraged him through the early days following his
>> accident.
>>
>> Joey didn't post the insurance report, perhaps the
>> missing variables are in there.
>>
>> I am guessing that the tower may have suffered some
>> sort of internal rusting or some other damage prior to
>> his work on it.
>>
>> The stress of the work at 100 feet and then removing
>> the top sections may have stressed those weaknesses until
>> they finally gave.
>>
>> There may also have been a change in weather, e.g.
>> wind gusts, temperature, etc.
>>
>> Metal fatigue sometimes results in failures at odd
>> moments and I am sure Joey is happy that tower failed
>> when he was at 40 feet vs 100!
>>
>>> I found a couple of things you said that did not add up correctly,
>>> obviously
>>> it happened,, but seems it should not have. You said you had the tower
>>> down
>>> to the 40 ft. level...By the way, is the tower Rohn 25??
>>> When the tower was fully up with the antennas and all the guy cables,
>>> that
>>> tower was at maximum load. Then you added your body weight, your gear to
>>> take the tower down, and all the movement that comes with getting a
>>> tri-bander down from 100 ft. That is theoretically when the tower shoud
>>> have
>>> collapsed. The only way I could see any different, is the bottom set of
>>> wires created some pivot at the failure point. But if that tower was up
>>> with
>>> proper guy cables, with a minimum of 3/16 EHS, 3990 lb break strength,
>>> the
>>> guy should have never broke. I am sure sorry of your accident, I hope
>>> what I
>>> am describing, and what happened to you can foil another tower
>>> tragedy...I
>>> sure feel it should not have happened....Best Wishes,, Good Luck to
>>> you,,
>>> Dan Cisson N4GNR
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Thanks! & 73, doc, KD4E
>> Personal: http://bibleseven.com/kd4e.html
>> Ham QTH: http://bibleseven.com/steel/cjb-steelhouse-index.html
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
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>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
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