[TowerTalk] Tower Concerns continued

[Tower2sell@aol.com]

In a message dated Mon, 15 Jan 2001  2:47:17 PM Eastern Standard Time, "Mike Murphy" <mmurphy@n-focus.com> writes:

<< I have been watching this post for some time.  I can't help but wonder if we
are forgetting that an exterior wall of a house was never meant to take a
lateral load, especially from 30 or 40 feet of tower hanging over it.  An
exterior wall is meant to support the roof, not a tower pushing and pulling
on it.

I have put up, taken down and serviced a number of towers.  And it simply
amazes me what hams "get away" with.  It may work for a while, maybe
forever.  But if you need 110 MPH wind survival, put up a free standing
tower that is designed for it.  Otherwise you are playing with fire, not to
mention taking a chance on pulling down part of your house.

Michael Murphy - KD8OK


>The bracket is over designed as much as I could.  Where it attaches to the
>house it is 5' long and it has three bolts that go through vertical 2x4.  I
>have this backed up with a horizontal 2x4.  All of this including the bolts
>are stainless steel.  Several locals have agreed that this is done properly
>and I believe it to be a better bracket then the one Rohn uses in their
>bracketed towers.



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 >>

Michael, You may be on to something here. I doubt that the house itself will stand 100 mph winds and this discussion may be a mute point. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I thought this tower was in Florida (no voting jokes please) Many of the older homes may not withstand 110 mph winds because they don not have the roof and foundation tiedowns.

Another point is that some locations in Florida use a 3 second wind speed as opposed to a fastest mile wind. The ASCE 7 uses the 3 second wind and the EIA-222 (ROHN) uses the fastest mile. There is hope because there is a simple conversion:

3 Sec   Fastest Mile
85  70
90  75
100 80
105 85
110 90
120 100
125 105
130 110
140 120
145 125
150 130

I hope no one asks what's the differnce between the two, because that will take a masters thesis to explain.

Tower2sell@aol.com



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