[TowerTalk] Homebrew Towers & Liability

[Steve]

Hi Wes, I appreciate your comments regarding structures that we as amateurs use
to support our antennas. Wooden poles were quite popular as supports for
antennas but I guess a 80' pole is quite expensive these days. As for the matter
of home brewing towers it seem that the comments returned never did answer the
question posted. VE2HQ has built some substantial towers and antennas and Noel
may be a good source for info on home brewing towers. It never ceases to amaze
me at the responses that are posted regarding anything out of the ordinary (do
what the manufacture sez ) if we all followed that path we would still be flying
Ford trimotor or two seater biplanes on trips across the country. I would enjoy
a flight in these fine air crafts but for comfort you cant beet the currant crop
of air crafts. It takes imagination, time and money to do things different than
what the manufactures do and seems like some people are lacking in all these
attributes. The spirit of amateur radio is dwindling but there is a small core
that keeps the flame alive.

73 es best wishes for the holidays and keep that back hoe busy, Steve VE3TU

Wes & Linda wrote:

> At 09:05 PM 12/13/00 EST, K7LXC@aol.com wrote:
> [snip]
>
> >    What're you...nuts? Towers on the market have been designed by proper
> >engineers and built by journeymen workers. You think you can do that? HA!
> >
> >    A 'wooden' tower? Sheesh.
> >
> >Cheers,   Steve    K7LXC
> >Tower Tech
>
> Let me see.... I seem to recall someone posting photos of the crappy welds
> on freshly built Rohn tower sections that were being returned to Rohn for
> replacement.
>
> Were these the ones "built by journeymen workers" that you are referring to?
>
> Let me run this by you.  I number among my close friends (all of us retired
> from the same aerospace firm) a mechanical engineer with a Ph.D. from
> Stanford who now teaches at the U of AZ and a metallurgist with a master's
> degree. (Just to show you that the doctor isn't some fuzzy-headed theorist,
> he also built his own house, drilled his own well and enters
> tractor-pulling contests with his antique crawler that he personally
> rebuilt.) My next-door neighbor once worked at the same firm as a certified
> welder.   He now works for a glass-fiber drawing company welding such
> things platinum dies, etc.  It doesn't hurt that he also owns a backhoe <g>.
>
> If I determined a set of requirements and asked these folks to design and
> construct a tower and footing for me is it your position that it's going to
> be unsafe or fail?
>
> As to wooden construction, just think about all of the 200+-year-old
> timber-framed buildings, aircraft and blimp hangers, railroad bridges,
> water towers and so forth that are still standing and operating.
>
> Sheesh indeed.
>
> Wes Stewart  N7WS
>
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