[TowerTalk] Telephone Pole

[K7GCO@aol.com]

In a message dated 22.01.00 20:17:49 Pacific Standard Time, kg5u@hal-pc.org 
writes:

<< 
 >Take a look at some of the pictures from the major ice storm in northern NY
 >last year and you will see thousands of the poles, all wired together and
 >thus guyed together, snapped like little twigs because of the ice load on
 >the wires.
 
   EVALUATING A SELF SUPPORTING (NO CONCRETE) TELEPHONE POLE SUPPORT BASED ON 
ICE OR WIND LOADS ON POWER LINES OR OTHER COMMERCIAL LOADS IS NOT FAIR AND 
TOTALLY IRRELEVANT.  EVALUATE ANY ANTENNA SUPPORT BASED ON TYPICAL HAM 
ANTENNA LOADS, THE COST, AVAILABILITY, COST TO INSTALL IT, WIFE AND NEIGHBOR 
EYE SORE FACTOR, MAINTENANCE, SPECIAL BOLTS NEEDED (ON AND 0N), POTENTIAL 
WELDING FAILURES I KEEP READING ABOUT, SHIPPING DAMAGE--INSURANCE HASSLES, 
AND LONGEVITY.  EVENTUAL REMOVAL TAKES A CHAIN SAW AND YOU CAN HAVE A LOT OF 
FIREWOOD ALSO.  
   CAN'T YOU JUST SMELL THE ADVANTAGES?  AFTER ALL THE PROBLEMS THAT HAVE 
BEEN COVERED IN TT IN GREAT DETAIL OF METAL TOWERS OR SUPPORTS, THERE IS ONLY 
"1" REPORT SO FAR OF A TELEPHONE POLE SNAPPING IN A HURRICANE. THERE WAS NO 
REPORT OF WHAT ELSE WAS BLOWN AWAY FOR COMPARISON. THAT ONLY CAME TO LIGHT 
OVER THE FIRST SUGGESTION OF USING THEM.  
   TOWERS DESIGNED BY TRAINED ENGINEERS AND THEIR MANY FAILURES COMPARES TO 
100,000 DEATHS A YEAR OF MEDICAL MISTAKES BY HIGHLY TRAINED DOCTORS.  WE HAD 
RIOTS IN THE STREETS OVER 55,000 KILLED IN KOREA AND THERE IS NEVER A WHIMPER 
OVER 100,000 DEATHS-A-YEAR CAUSED BY MISTAKES OF HIGHLY TRAINED AND OVER PAID 
DOCTORS.  IT'S SO BAD THAT EVEN CLINTON AND TED KENNEDY ARE TAKING 
LEGISLATIVE STEPS TO SAVE US FROM OUR DOCTORS (MAYBE EVEN TOWER ENGINEERS). 
LETS GET BACK TO NATURE AND USE ALTERNATIVE TELEPHONE POLES.  "NATURAL 
SUBSTANCES" ARE IN (EVEN TREE BARK) AND "ARTIFICIAL" IS OUT IN SMART MEDICINE 
NOW--AND ANTENNA SUPPORTS.  NO CONCRETE INSURANCE NEEDED.  AVERAGE 
INSTALLATION TIME IS ABOUT AN HOUR AND VERY LITTLE SURGERY IS NEEDED.  
PREPARE THE POLE BEFORE INSTALLATION WITH STEPS ($.50 EACH) AND ROTOR/MAST 
HARDWARE.
K7GCO  
   Being down here on the balmy gulf coast (it was in the 70's today), I can't
 really speak from a wide based experience with the ice events of our more
 northerly and colder neighbors.  However, I can speak to my experience in
 Seattle a couple of years ago at Christmas/New Years when a really big (for
 them) snowstorm hit, left a foot or
 so of snow, and was followed by a big freeze (and a subsequent warming trend
 and flooding--all within a week!!!  What a place!).  My only recollection of
 problems with power poles was that they snapped when the wires they were
 supporting were loaded with ice themselves and with the frozen branches that
 snapped off of the nearby trees.
 
 
 Even then, there seemed to be very few poles that were severely affected.
 
 
 Also, I've been treated in my time in Houston (37 years) to seeing firsthand
 lightning strikes on power poles.  Actually, the pole pigs were the things 
that
 suffered.  The poles seemed to be unscathed (at least, from my position in 
the
 supposed safety of my car in traffic).
 
 73,
 dale, kg5u
 

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