1550 ft. Tower Fails

[Dan Norman KJ1N]

The article I read said the gin pole fell on a top guy cable creating a 
chain reaction.  The explosions/fires could have been attributed to the 
high-power TV/radio antennas shorting when the collapse occured.  Either 
way this is a horrible event. 
     Dan KJ1N
     Boulder, CO

On Tue, 15 Oct 1996, Kris Mraz, N5KM wrote:

> 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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