[TowerTalk] Buying, Removing and Reinstalling Used Towers.

[Dr M J DiGirolamo]

Dave,

  These are all EXCELLENT questions but I'd be surprised if you got much
more useful information other than for these two: a) who installed the tower
and b) how old it was.

   I bought a 6yr old USTower 72' last June (2006) from the estate of a SK.
His wife was out of the country for two years and found it installed when
she got home!  She had no paperwork but she was gone in 1999 and 2000.  She
thought it was done professionally (though some of what I've seen was not so
professional).

    Buying, removing and reinstalling a used tower is a bigger project than
most first timers ever dreamed and SAFETY must be the paramount
question/issue.  Although I got a fantastic bargain on this tower (around
$2K for $15K in tower and accessories), I'm in for over $20k now.  It's one
year later and, though the tower is in place and has been raised it's
currently folded over and the final antenna installation should be complete
within the next month (sooner except vacations are in there).  Admittedly, I
went overboard on the grounding system, etc, but at least I know it has been
done safely and correct.

73,

Mike DiGirolamo, W4XN
Charlottesville, VA 

    >-----Original Message-----
    >Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 10:18:39 -0400
    >From: "David Jordan" <wa3gin at comcast.net>
    >Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Tower ACCIDENT
    >To: "'Jim Lux'" <jimlux at earthlink.net>, <towertalk at contesting.com>
    >Message-ID: <002c01c7b8c6$0ee6f180$0f633244 at DTSFBXZ441>
    >Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
    >
    >What would be really good for the list members is a set of questions
one
    >should ask before beginning work on a tower that they do not own or do
not
    >have knowledge of the structural health.
    >
    >In the instance provided the writer was told the tower is in good
shape, by
    >the owner.  That is a pretty subjective statement.  What is good shape
to an
    >inexperienced ham radio operator who has no experience with towers
might be
    >a "red flag" for a professional tower installer. Some obvious questions
that
    >come to my mind are:
    >
    >- How long has the tower been installed?
    >- Have the guy wires been replaced regularly?
    >- Has the tower been inspected regularly?
    >- Has the tower been hit by lightning?
    >- Who did the installation?
    >- Has the tension on the guy lines been measured?
    >
    >I'm sure there are better questions to ask but having a check-list for
our
    >list members might prevent future accidents. Maybe, such a list,
already
    >exist on a web site but I'm not aware of such a list and I'd like to
have
    >access to such a list for myself and my friends in the hobby.  I'd post
such
    >a list on our club web page.
    >
    >Thanks,
    >Dave
    >Wa3gin