[TowerTalk] MA 550 Wind loading and building codes

Cam and Juli Hedrick walnutcreek at appstate.net
Tue Sep 12 20:51:59 EDT 2006



HI all, 
I'm finding this most interesting.  I called an inspector friend of mine for
our area.  I live in a rural setting and have acreage on which to play, so
they don't even pay attention to the towers I put up...They figure I know
more about them they do to be quite honest with you.  
Anyway, there are different codes for commercial towers versus private
towers here.  Commercial towers have to be rated at 120 mph with antenna
load calculated in due to the elevation and the hurricane force winds we
experience many a day during the winter months.  He stated that so long as a
private tower is properly constructed and guyed if a guyed tower they don't
worry about the wind rating unless it could cause damage to property if it
failed.  Free standing towers fall in the same category.  I asked him about
crank up towers and he said so long as the owner cares about his property
(antennas and tower) they accept the nested rating, but will not allow them
in high wind areas.  There's not many of those here, as even the valleys get
nailed with high winds, so more so than others.   He went on to say though
that they do allow crank ups if they are either guyed when nested or
attached to a permanent structure to engineered specifications.  
He also stated that if a tower extends 20' about the trees in the area they
require lighting per FAA specifications....tagged a few ham in our area
already.  Said he'd drop in to see my station sometime.  It's to commercial
specs.
73, hope this helps.
Cam
WA4JKW




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