[TowerTalk] TT birthday?

[Mark .]

Steve,

  I want to publicly reiterate a sentiment I expressed to you in a separate 
email.
I began reading and joined sometime around '97 or so, in preparation for 
building my first tower.
I think TowerTalk and its archives has become a treasured and valuable 
legacy of helping Hams "build it right so you can sleep at night". You 
deserve a lot of credit for so freely offering knowlege and advice you have 
gained as a professional and an Amateur.
It continues to build as all with experiences share what they have learned, 
in a largely professional manor.

As moderator, I think you strike a good balance between allowing limited run 
of off-topic threads and putting your foot down when necessary to stop or 
forcibly eliminate completely errant topics and troublemakers.

I haven't contributed too much in recent years, but I still read regularly 
and 'lurk', hoping to refine my knowledge.

My own Rohn 25 tower has been up since 1998, and survived a couple of 
hurricanes with hardly more maintenance than retensioning guys, and touching 
up rust spots (mostly on the Rohn plated bolt heads). This is directly a 
result of what I have learned right here, on TowerTalk, and I don't believe 
I could ever have completed as nice an installation without this resource, 
and the contributions of Hams who continue to support TowerTalk and 
beginners.

I still maintain an archive of topics, summarized from emails here and some 
other experiences, at www.qsl.net/n1lo, which is mostly focused on guyed 
towers.  Someday I'd like to refine and update it, adding lots of photos or 
CAD illustrations for some of the rigging techniques.
There have also been many other nice tower construction websites that have 
appeared with even more helpful information, including other types ot 
towers.

Take a bow, Steve and Bill, and long live TowerTalk!

--...MARK_N1LO...--


<< From: K7LXC at aol.com
Howdy, TowerTalkians --

    It seems to me that TowerTalk was started about 10 years ago but I can't
find any start date. Can someone shed a little light on that? Tnx.

    TT is a very busy reflector and currently has 1446 members. It was
originally started as a place where amateurs (and I emphasize AMATEURS) 
could
get
advice on tower and antenna construction to keep them out of trouble. I'd 
been
working on amateur towers for a couple of years and saw many things done 
poorly
or wrong due to ignorance on their part (see the Ten Most Common Tower
Building Mistakes under Tech Notes at www.championradio.com) and realized 
that
the
internet could provide a great resource. So with Bill, W4AN's help, we 
started
it up.

    Thanks to everyone for their contributions over the years and also for
acting like adults by welcoming new members and not berating people for 
posting
"stupid" questions. And once in awhile we even get a new topic to beat up!

Cheers, Steve    K7LXC  TowerTalk Administrator >>