[TowerTalk] My Tower cost

[Bill Coleman]

On Aug 25, 2004, at 12:44 AM, Tower (K8RI) wrote:
>
> Not really. OTOH all tower installations depend on luck to some extent 
> no matter how well engineered.

Only to the extent that the actual weather conditions meet the 
engineering data. If you design for 70 mph and get 170 mph winds, 
nothing will stand unless you are lucky.

>   For the winds of 70 MPH and only 40 foot towers using 1/8th inch 
> steel guys anchored in clay was sufficient.  This was also back when 
> tower installations were seldom engineered.

1/8th steel guys were never sufficient. "Anchoring" them in clay and 
attaching them 8 feet off the ground was never sufficient -- in fact 
closer to not having guys at all.

While such shoddy engineering practices may have been common practice 
years ago, they are not advisable today.

> OTOH, given the same set of circumstances I'd have no qualms about 
> doing those same installations again in the same locations.  Would I 
> do them here? No as there is no free space for them to fall, IF they 
> fell.  Had they fallen I'd have only been out the antenna. The towers 
> were either cheap or free.

What if they hit someone during the fall? What if they fell while they 
were being climbed?

> What do you see as a safety issue?

Improper tower base. Inadequate guy wires. Inadequate guy anchors. 
Overloading of tower.

> Back then there was no such thing as properly, or improperly 
> engineered towers way out in the country, at least not little 40 
> footers.That was also over 35 years ago.

Today there are such concepts.

> The only antenna I ever lost was a tripod mounted TV antenna in the 
> center of the roof. It pulled the lag bolts right out of the backing 
> plates.

Lag bolts!

> The towers with the big KLMs and the Wilson suffered no damage. That 
> was covered. The adjuster took one look at how it had been installed 
> and I got paid.

You are one lucky fellow.

> Some one mentioned towers and the concrete as being structures.  Here 
> in Homer Township ham towers 80 feet and under and not considered 
> structures, nor are their bases. They require no building permit and 
> the county doens't even want to bother inspecting them.

Just because they don't require inspection is not reason not to do the 
job right.

Again, I'm all for being cheap, but not at the expense of safety. 
That's a false economy.

> N833R, World's Oldest Debonair (S# CD-2)

I assume this is a Beechcraft airplain. Cool.

Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
             -- Wilbur Wright, 1901