[TowerTalk] Falling Towers & Bent Masts

[dick@pobox.com]

3 APR - 1600 CST

Gentlemen...

Bent Masts:

I am the person N4SI referred to when he recommended using a crane to 
extract the bent mast/antenna assembly.  If at all possbile, this is THE 
ONLY REALLY SAFE WAY to remove the damaged mast.  The entire process took 
less than an hour.  The only collateral damage I had was a set of ruts in 
the yard to fill - a cheap price to pay for my then ignorance (17 years 
ago) in using water pipe for a mast.

Falling Towers:

A few years ago a brand new 800 ft. commercial tower collapsed in this 
area when all of one set of its guy wires were snapped by a falling 200 
ft. perimeter tower.  The older tower needed maintenance and a heavy ice 
storm was the trigger.  All of the wreckage was within 125 feet of the 
tower base.  Some of the tower sections were buried as much as 6 to 7 feet 
into the ground.

One of our big Chicago area repeaters was, and still is, at that site.  
The repeater shack at the base of the tower was untouched, but we had to 
climb over 10 feet of crumpled steel to get to it.  

Based on first hand observation, I believe the "Newsline" article about 
the fallen 2000 ft. tower to be correct.

73 - Dick Isely, WD9GIG


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