[TowerTalk] Windmill Towers

[David L. Thompson]

Its probably because they are expensive.  There was a major maker of 4 leg
windmill type towers in the USA 30 years ago called Vesto Towers.  They ran
ads in QST and CQ and most small airports still have such a tower up.  They
were 30 to 100 feet and said to be Hurricane proof.  I do know that an
airforce base in Mississippi had a 100 footer that came down in Hurricane
Camille in 1969 (205Mph winds).  I seem to remember the Vesto owner was a
ham.  I looked in the Thomas Register a dozen years ago and did not find
them any longer.  Guess they went out of business.  did see a picture of the
100 year old W5's antenna and tower and its a windmill type tower.  I also
recall several DXers built there own 40 years ago.

Vesto had a mount mechanism on top and an optional tilt portion so the
antennas could be turned vertical to work on them.  I suspect if a windmill
tower is found some type of plate would have to be constructed to mount a
rotor.

Dave K4JRB


> Whilst looking at this page http://www.qsl.net/aa0mz/nbred.htm I came
across
> this excellent photo of a windmill tower here:
>
> http://www.qsl.net/aa0mz/notresp.jpg
>
> This got me wondering why windmill towers are rarely, if ever, mentioned
on
> this forum. Looking at the photo, it seems that it shouldn't be too
> difficult to make something like that, and would give a strong self
> supporting platform for an antenna.
>
> Has anyone made one of these, or used one of these ? Have you any comments
> to make about the advantages or disadvantages of a windmill tower ?
>
> 73s Tim EI8IC
>