[TowerTalk] A near iminent TX-455 failure

Nick - VE3EY ve3ey at fireroute.com
Sun Nov 13 20:26:11 EST 2005


I am posting this note on behalf of a friend of mine.

His 55 foot TX-455 US Tower is on the verge of collapsing down.  The 
owner just noticed that two out of three legs of his tower just broke 
down.   The legs snapped just above the mounting ears where the tower is 
fastened to the "T" mounting plate.   We suspect that some 90 km/h wind 
gusts we have had here in Toronto last week may have been a contributing 
factor.   

The tower is currently nested and the antennas are still on top of it.  
It is basically holding on only one of the remaining legs and a few 
cross braces.   It was installed brand new in 1990 and it had a 2 el GEM 
Qubical Quad installed ever since.   In 2003, owner replaced the short  
mast with a 22" cromoly nested about 3" inside the tower and added a 
home made rotary dipole for 30/40 m at about 10 feet above the Gem 
Quad.   The dipole is a modified Cushcraft D3W warc dipole. 

The pictures of the damage can be seen here.   http://dx.fireroute.com/TX455

We are looking for some advice how to remedy this problem.   Would there 
be any way to fix this tower short of buying a new one?    

 
73,  Nick
ve3ey




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