[TowerTalk] broken tower section

[Roger (K8RI)]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Barnes" <n4jbk at bellsouth.net>
To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 6:31 PM
Subject: [TowerTalk] broken tower section


>I have a friend that has recently had a rohn 25 tower fall in a severe
> thunderstorm bending and breaking the section at the bottom. The tower
> is in concrete. Is there a best way to mate a section back to what is
> existing? Is is best to put a sleeve around each leg of the tower and

We need a little more information.
First I'm making the assumption that the tower is properly guyed as 25G is 
not self supporting although that kind of damage  sounds as if a guy broke 
or the tower was free standing.

The fix depends on how tall the tower and what it has for a load.
There are proper ways to fix this and for short, lightly loaded towers you 
can <gasp> do a "good enough" if good enough is well done.

> through bolt it? Is it best to sleeve and weld it? Is it best to cut the
> existing section off at the ground and use a rohn base plate? Or are

All of these depend not only the tower loading (how tall, what it has for a 
load, and how well guyed it is) AND for installing a baseplate it depends on 
whether the concrete pier is sufficient to be used as such. Generally the 
concrete that has a tower set in it is crowned and would require some work 
to accomodate a base plate.  Again, for a small, well guyed tower the pier 
doesn't have to be a monster and a bit of uneven-ness can be taken care of 
with grout or epoxy. It needs to be large enough to support the load and in 
most places has to extend a ways below the frost line (how far depends on 
code)  If the code is not applicable to towers such as here, you still put 
the base in as if it did. Oterwise the frost would at least cause it to move 
around and at worst, push it right out of the ground.

I'd suggest he get a local ham knowledgeable in this type of work to look at 
it.  A 5 minute glance should answer all these questions.

Roger (K8RI - ARRL Life Member)
www.rogerhalstead.com
N833R (World's oldest Debonair)
.
> there better suggestions? Thanks you, Joe N4JBK
>
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