1550 ft. Tower Fails

[Kris Mraz, N5KM]

I'm not sure how widely this story was distributed but I'll repeat it
here.

Last Saturday morning a 1550 ft. television tower failed at Cedar Hills,
Texas
just Southeast of Dallas. Three men were killed. The men were in the
process
of installing a new antenna using a gin pole. One man was near the top
of the
tower and the other two were near the base. Cause of the failure is
unknown
at this time. There is speculation that there may have been human error
in
the use of the one ton gin pole. FBI investigators have ruled out
sabotage.
There is also another story that indicates the men were also trying to
get
a bend out of one of the guywires. (I'm a little unsure of this last
point.
Its difficult at times to interpret a reporter's version of the facts
when it gets technical).

There are several other similar towers at Cedar Hills. This is the site
of most
of the TV/radio towers that service Dallas/Ft. Worth. At the time of the
failure
several TV and radio stations went off the air. All TV stations were
back on the air within a few hours except Channel 39 and the radio
stations that
shared their tower. There were also minor fires/explosions and power
loss
as a result of the collapse. 

According to newspapers the tower had failed before in 1969 and in 1987
a jet had
flown into one of its guywires and crashed but the tower stayed up. 

Also according to the newpapers the tower was wind rated to 70 MPH. This
seems
incedibly low considering the size of this tower and this part of the
country.

-- 

73
Kris N5KM 
mraz@aud.alcatel.com

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