[TowerTalk] Homebrew towers and liability

[K0FF]

Dave, I remember Bill Brown and his homebrew 125' rotating pole. It was all
built on site
and held a pair of 6 el Telrex 20M beams. After he passed away I tried to
buy it but
the family kept it because there were by then some commercial antennas on it
bringing in income. Even Bill did a few things that he would have done
differently
had he thought about it, especially in the bearing. The whole pole sat on a
railroad wheel
bearing down in a deep hole
and was inaccessible. Water getting into the hole floated the oil, and
caused some problems.

The angle of takeoff experiments that intrigue me so much these days were
inspired by Bill's
results with the stack.

In the 35 years or so since that tower was built, I have never seen another
made in
the same quality, and unfortunately most other HB
towers were done as a money saving attempt and produced sub standard and
even
dangerous results. The worst I saw was a rohn clone, made from thin wall
electrical conduit!

I applaud any effort towards homebrewing ham radio equipment and
accessories, but still maintain
that few of us are capable of making a safe tower at home that is also
cost-effective.

Forget about lawsuits. You can't bring back the dead, or heal the seriously
injured with a lawsuit.

Ask Jim Probst, a local who died when on a 150' tower, and an improperly
installed turnbuckle
separated.
Ask the several men in Orlando who died when an 1100' commercial tower went
down.

This last episode ( circa 1973) marked the end of my tower climbing career
and is the main reason I left FL, and live back in MO where we are presently
in a blizzard.........

Happy Building, Geo>KØFF
http://homepages.dstream.net/K0FF


----- Original Message -----
From: <thompson@mindspring.com>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2000 11:02 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Homebrew towers and liability


> There have been a number of homebrew towers published in amateur radio
> literature over the years.
> The old handbooks even had wooden lattice ones.  The most extemsive towers
I
> remember was a carbon copy
> of the big bertha (Telerex) by W0SYK in 73 or the 71' crank up by the W5
in
> about 1970 or 71.
>
> As to liability, these have no more or less liability than a factory
> version.   As my lawyer friends say you must elmiminate the attractive
> nuisance with something that limits access to climbing.   A tower falling
> over is another problem.  One contester near Atlanta has the top of his
> tower go through the roof of a neighbor.   Again its the same as one of
your
> trees falling over the house.   Usually you or your insurance pays!
>
> Dave K4JRB
>
>
>
> --
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>


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