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Re: [TowerTalk] Towable towers available from the government

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Towable towers available from the government
From: Jim Lux <jimlux@earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 08:09:08 -0700
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
On 8/14/13 8:00 PM, Roger (K8RI) wrote:
On 8/14/2013 1:41 PM, Doug Ronald wrote:
One small hitch (pun noted), they need to be destroyed before you can
haul
them away.


I wonder why the de mil portable towers?  They aren't a threat and could
be put to good use by some EOCs around the country.
Our EOC has a ham station right in the 911 call center which is part of
the law enforcement center.



Could be that they are of uncertain quality/condition, and they want to make sure that they don't get resold as "almost new condition" by a less than reputable dealer.

Maybe they were exposed to something that might cause internal damage (e.g. they were flooded in Katrina or Sandy or something, and they've been immersed in salt water) or even just sitting outside in the rain and elements for a few years.

Maybe the steel is in ok shape, but the cables/sheaves/moving mechanical parts are sketchy?

It might cost more to evaluate them than to just sell as scrap metal. After all, they're being sold as a single 100 ton lot, rather than individual, and that's almost certainly because there's no budget to separately inventory and sell them. They're probably in a big heap, and the word went out: "we want to use that land under the pile" or it's "Let's get rid of that pile of junk, put it on the excess list"


At JPL, we get rid of a lot of old stuff that is potentially useful, but it's not like we have funding to go through and pick out the good slotted lines from the ones that are broken. Nor do we have the funding or space to just keep the stuff in storage cabinets on the off chance that someone might use it in the future.
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