[TowerTalk] "Tower in the woods"

[Mike Bragassa]

When I moved from Wyoming to South Texas I was paranoid about hurricanes and 
tornado's. I even put an additional set guys on my first tower. (Lottsa' 
good they will do; I know now!) It's the falling tree's that do you in. In 
order to be safe I would have to remove all trees within 120+++++ feet or 
the height of my tower w/ mast. I don't believe so! The pines may have to 
go, but not the hardwoods.
I removed enough trees to raise the antenna's via a tram system. I have 
association permission to put up my towers but I'm not going to push my 
luck. From the street, 20 + feet away, you can barely see the towers and the 
antenna's are up above the tree tops; making them almost completely 
invisible.
>From this maybe you can glean that "from the street....//.."; but not 40-50 
feet away. She'll have to give you a little break on "seeing". Maybe if you 
paint the tower dark green? (I'm not too fond of that.) My guy wire poles 
are painted a dark green, though.
My recommendations to consider:
1.  Get it as far away as possible from the house.
2. Leave as many trees as possible.
3. Put up enough tower to get above the BOTTOM full  foliage of your trees.
4. Use six foot elevated guy wire poles...painted green or brown.
5. Maybe use Philystran guys as they are less visible than galvanized EHS. 
(Except the bottom 10-20 feet or so should still be EHS for safety reasons.) 
In time EHS becomes a somewhat dull, anyway.
6. Hope for a little leeway on the 'true visibility' issue....after it is 
up.

Mike, K5UO
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Subject: [TowerTalk] Tower in the woods

Sorry for this slightly weird first post, but I have
an XYL that is decidedly "tower unfriendly" and has
told me that I can put one up as long as she doesn't
see it, which basically means she doesn't want it
strapped to the house and would really prefer to not
trip over guy wires while strolling in our yard.  I
respect that, and luckily, I have a 4 acre plot, so
I'm thinking I can make this work.  My question is to
any of you who have successfully erected "stealth
towers" in the woods... how much clearance did you
give yourself from the trees?  how much from the
guys... etc? any thoughts and words of wisdom?
Obviously clearing the forest out with a chainsaw is
not really a good option either.
I realize this question can only solicit opinions and
recommendations, not hard and fast answers, but I'm
just seeking advice.

I'll be putting up 60 feet of Rohn 25G with a 3
element steppir wich I have already aquired....

Thanks for any advice,
Doug AA1UI