[TowerTalk] Tower concerns

[K7LXC@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/16/01 11:03:17 AM Pacific Standard Time, ae4mr@arrl.org 
writes:

> Stop and think about what you are saying.  You seem to be stating that this
>  can be done in a couple of hours!   For this two hour service Rohn charges
>  $3,000 plus $300 per hour or approximately $3,600.  That is $1,800 per 
hour!

    Okay, I didn't say that Rohn was going to do them or what they'd charge. 
No one that reads this reflector is going to pay $3k so that's not even in 
the realm of reality for us. My local PE does all my tower plans and charges 
me $350 to do the calcs and stamp the plans. If you go to an engineering firm 
or manufacturer, the sky's the limit.

    Regardless of what they charge you, it does only take a couple of hours 
to do the calcs. 

>  Also bear in mind that this same engineer is not going to try to give you
>  the best structure he can for the money.  He is going to want to over
>  engineer this as much as is possible for a whole verities of reasons.
>  
    What he's going to do is to give you the minimum specs to meet your 
building requirements. Saying that *he* is going to "over engineer" something 
is a gross generalization and in most cases not even true.

>  Implying hams are cheap and are looking for something for nothing is a 
cheap
>  shot!
>  
    That's because they're a bunch of CHEAP GUYS! Give me a break - I've 
worked in ham radio retail and ham radio manufacturing and hams typically 
want everything and really balk, suck the air out of the room, etc. when you 
start mentioning what something costs. I've been a ham for 40 years and some 
things haven't changed much. 

    Don't get me wrong - we all love customers that understand that there is 
value in something and that they aren't getting screwed when they buy 
something. And there are many of them - thank you! 

    To the rest - get over it.

Cheers,    Steve    K7LXC
Champion Radio Products
Tower Tech 

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