[Towertalk] MW BC tower insulator swap method

[Rob Atkinson, K5UJ]

Hi you guys:

Last night I went to the monthly meeting of the local radio club. The 
program was a tour of a local 1580 Khz AM station tx site.  I was real 
excited because I had never gotten a chance to see a mw bc tx site up close 
so I went along and asked a lot of questions.  When we got out to the tower 
I asked if we could see the base of it up close.  I wanted to see how the 
pros did their grounding, counterpoise connections, and insulation of the 
tower.  I expected to be told we couldn't get close because of liability but 
to my surprise the guy showing us around let us gather around the tower 
base.  I only had to say "Don't Touch That!" twice when it looked like 
someone was about to lean up against the pipe running from the tuning shed 
to the tower.  Anyway, what I wanted to share was something I learned that 
was real interesting to me--these base insulators wear out eventually and 
have to be replaced.  That's done by jacking up the tower just enough to 
allow the insulator to be quickly swapped out so a new one can be put in and 
the tower let back down to rest on it. I thought that was a nifty trick.  We 
also saw an old Sparta standby tx (four 4-1000s) and learned how they 
isolate an FM antenna on an AM tower.

73,
Rob Atkinson
K5UJ
k5uj@hotmail.com

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