[TowerTalk] Re: [CQ-Contest] Aluminum Towers (Tower Survey)

[Pete Smith]

At 08:35 AM 9/25/03 -0700, you wrote:
>After reading the testimonial from N0WY on his aluminum Universal Towers
>15-50, I was intrigued at reading some of the spec sheets on this series of
>towers.  (See http://www.texastowers.com/b30.htm, for example.)  I wonder,
>however, if anybody here has had experience with aluminum towers in a
>tropical, seaside setting?  How well does unanodized aluminum stand up to
>persistent salt spray in a high-humidity, warm-temperature setting?  I can
>tell you from experience that Rohn 45G does NOT do well in that setting!  I
>have a 45G tower that is about 4 years old now and doesn't look like it's
>going to last longer than another 4 years unless I start taking aggressive
>action to protect it.  I know W2GD paints his tower at least once a year on
>P4, and I've heard Jacky paints his twice a year.  Plus, the story has made
>the rounds that Jacky has been trying to devise an automatic sprinkler
>system to wash the salt spray off his tower.  Would an aluminum tower avoid
>all that grief, or would it be even worse than galvanized steel?
>

I wonder how your galvanized steel tower would hold up if you painted it 
with one of those products from <http://www.stoprust.net/>, 
<www.por-15.com> or <www.zerorust.com>.  The latter talks about their 
product surviving 2000+ hours in a salt-spray test cabinet, in a standard 
ASTM test.  They appear to vary considerably in the amount of surface prep 
required.

73, Pete N4ZR
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