[TowerTalk] Tower design question

[Pat Barthelow]

Perhaps I have missed this in the thread, but has anyone described the 
mechanism of accumulation of water at the base of the corner tubing, of Rohn 
25-Like towers?

Some outside the box thinking...

If you did something liike seal each joint/bolts assembly with liberal 
amounts of externally applied RTV material, after assembly,  that would 
eliminate water entering through capillary action through the joints.
I wonder if when the tower cools a lot, at night, if that can cause a 
significant, but  slight vacuum, inside the legs that would draw moisture in 
that is sitting on outside joints.
Water entry may not only be through joints, but may be condensation.  Does 
the "Pointy Top" close off the top ends of the corner posts?  Could you 
perhaps tap into the top sections of a tower, where stresses and weight are 
low, and apply a blast of pressurized air, into the whole length of the leg, 
to clear/blow out any accumulated crud at the base, and to check that the 
base tips of the legs are clear.   That might be a good idea when setting 
the base, if the effort is made to place the buried legs on gravel which 
allows drainage, to put some air pressure insde  the vertical tubes to 
continuously blow out ingress of wet concrete during base setup.   How about 
some sort of electic thermal wrap around each leg, as it enters the ground, 
to periodically evaporate accoumulated water?

Sincerely, Pat Barthelow     aa6eg at hotmail.com
http://www.jamesburgdish.org
Jamesburg Earth Station  Moon Bounce Team
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