[TowerTalk] In defense of crankups

[Stan or Patricia Griffiths]

Hi Guys,

Here is what I think would help us all out.  We need an archive of tower failure
stories.  I don't know much about archiving or the best way to do it and maybe
even the present towertalk archives are exactly what we need.  I don't know.  In
any case, I think factual accounts of failed towers (all kinds) would be
extremely valuable.  They should contain a detailed description of the tower and
loads on it, dates of installation and how long they were up before failure,
details of the failure itself (ie: what happened?), weather conditions at the
time of failure if they had something to do with it, the best analysis of WHY
the failure occurred, what could have been done to prevent this failure, etc.
Other information such as injuries incurred, legal problems, etc. would also be
interesting.  I would like to see an archive of a hundred stories about tower
failures that would be searchable by tower type, perhaps.

So if we can find someone to be the keeper of such an archive, I will write at
least 10 different stories about true tower failures that I have detailed
information on.  Maybe we can get others to contribute their stories if they can
get past their embarrassment by realizing how telling about their bad experience
can be of tremendous benefit to others . . . perhaps even save a life or at
least prevent a terrible injury.

I wonder if burying this information along with all the other stuff in the
towertalk archives will hide it too much when it needs to be extremely visible.
Maybe the towertalk archives are OK for this.  What do you think, Steve?

Who wants to be the keeper of the stories?  I am ready to write.

It is interesting to note that the people who know the most about tower failures
are the companies who make them but I would not expect any of them to tell us
anything about the failures they have full knowledge of.  That would not be
consistant with the safety image they would like to portray.  So, there lies, I
am certain, a vast, untapped resource of exactly the information we would like
to know but will never be able to get . . . at least from that source.  It is up
to us to provide this data to each other.  So get over the embarrassment and
write your story for the benefit of your fellow hams.

Stan  w7ni@teleport.com

Bill Heinzinger wrote:

> >
> > >From this exchange, it would seem that Bill and Stan have, between them,
> a
> > (possibly complete) list of (maybe most) crank                   up
> hazards.
> I don't propose to know all the hazards. I don't propose to be an expert.
> All I tried to say was that due to circumstances I had to make a decision as
> to what type of tower would offer the best situation FOR ME.
> I did not wish to divorce my wife, nor move from my location.
> I made a decision and set certain levels of use that would offer me the most
> advantage and minimize risks.
> With any tower there is risk. I set parameters that offered me the most
> security.
> Do I worry about my tower?
> EVERY DAY!
> Maybe that's why I've never had a problem.
> Prudent decision, made after study combined with experience promote success.
>
> >
> > Would you two fellas be kind enough to stick your heads together, and,
> Bill,
> > you post what hazards of which you're conscious, and Stan, you post the
> > remainder, for the rest of us?
> >
> > Perhaps we could then adjust our compromises and choose among them so that
> > at least some of us could have crank
> ups
> > without the burden of divorce a/o relocation a/o trying to find another
> > ambition-of-a-lifetime hobby a/o upsetting the tower police ...
> >
> >




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