[Towertalk] Inquiry - Tower Collapse/Fall/Radius Zone

[n4kg@juno.com]

Hank, 

PROPERLY  GUYED  TOWERS  have proven to be very safe,
surviving winds of 100+ MPH.  Empirical evidence of tornado
and huricane tower survivals may support your case.  ALL 7
of my towers survived a small tornado, including the 130 ft tower
whose guys held up two 70 ft trees that had fallen on them.

You delude yourself if you seriously believe that amateur towers
(mostly Rohn 25 and 45) COLLAPSE when they fail.  In a private
response I provided numerous empirical examples of towers that 
fell out to their FULL HEIGHT, mostly due to human error or 
defective guying hardware. I understand the motivation to avoid 
overly restrictive setbacks but burying your head in the sand 
to the FACT that MANY amateur tower fairures fall their entire 
length does not seem like a good approach.

I am not aware of any studies of AMATEUR  RADIO TOWER
Failures and I have NEVER heard of a guyed amateur radio 
tower collapsing on itself.

That phenomenon happens to VERY LARGE, VERY TALL, 
VERY HEAVY  Commercial TV Broadcast Towers, not 120 ft or 
less Rohn Towers.  If your are going to be honest, compare apples
to apples, but don't try to pull the wool over the eyes of your local
officials by 'assuming' that amateur towers will collapse some 
percentage of their height because that is what happens to
1000 ft TV towers.

Tom  N4KG


On Tue, 9 Apr 2002  KD4OL@aol.com writes:
> Good Morning,
> 
> This is a follow-up to my previous posting several days ago.
> 
> We are working with our local municipal, public officials regarding 
> Tower 
> Ordinances.  We appreciate the thoughts and advice to our previous 
> inquiry.
> 
> However, this time we would like to be even more specific in our 
> request.  We 
> are trying to identify and obtain copies of any studies that 
> identify what is 
> a typical Collapse Zone, Fall Zone, Fall Radius of a tower subject 
> to 
> collapse or failure.  
> 
> Our municipality has informally suggested a tower height setback 
> from 
> property lines that may be considered excessive.  We are trying to 
> provide 
> information to them that would elevate their Safety concerns.
> 
> We feel that we might be able to accomplish this through competent 
> research 
> into this area.  Empirical results would be very helpful to us.
> 
> Can anyone help?
> 
> Thank you,
> Hank Smith, KD4OL
> Virginia
> 
> 
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