[TowerTalk] What Kind of Tower is This

[Donald Chester]

>Probably a Rohn Clone. I have seen many of them. A lot of local welding 
>shops made up towers for >the farmers to get a TV antenna up high enough to 
>get the signal from the Big City. In my area of >Western Kentucky, what 
>with the advent of Local Channels on Cable and Satellite TV, many can >be 
>had for taking them down. Some of the locals have done so but I think most 
>of that sort of >tower is dubious at best. It is one thing to drop a 
>Channel Master Fringe Supreme in the dirt and >dropping a Ham Yagi, Rotor 
>and all else.


I say that would have been true 25 years ago, but my experience in the early 
80's was that practically every one of those abandoned home TV antenna 
towers in rural areas worth the trouble of taking down was scarfed up by 
CB'ers during the CB "boom".

With the advent of more TV stations on the air, and later, cable and then 
satellite, stratospheric TV  receiving antennas in rural areas was pretty 
much a phenomenon of the 50's.  Any of those things still standing to-day 
would be highly suspect.  Many are undoubtedly 90% ferric oxide (known as 
rust), maybe held together with remnants of the original coat of paint 
applied at the factory.

Besides the danger of personal injury trying to take down the tower, there 
is the liability issue in case the tower fails during disassembly and causes 
property damage.

I would look for good used communications tower stock, such as Rohn 25 or 
better.  Now that the CB craze has long ago fizzled, many of these may be 
had for the trouble of taking down.

Don k4kyv

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