[TowerTalk] Self-support Tower on Rock? - Nixed

[Tom Anderson]

Eric:

I know how you and your wife must feel.  You find a location and a house you fall in love with and boom something happens to sour the deal, been there done that.

Back in the 1970s my XYL Cheryl and I found what we thought was the idea location in Hillsboro TX, located on Interstate 35 between Dallas/Fort Worth and Waco.  Its where I-35W and I-35E split, one going to Dallas and one going to Fort Worth.  The highways become one again in Denton TX north of D/FW.

The QTH we found was on the highest point around Hillsboro, some 200-300 ft above the interstate  and about a half mile east of it and it sat on 250 acres of land too and the price was right "dirt cheap", with the town and interstate below, but far enough so we didn't hear the road noise and the 18 wheelers going by.  The house was right out of Scarlet O'Hara and Gone with the Wind, two story with a big front porch and everything.  It was a ham's dream location, clear view of the horizon for 360 degrees, although it would have taken some remodeling which we had built into our budget.

My late father-in-law taught vocational agriculture and farm mechanics at an area high school nearby so we had him come look at the place before we put in an offer and he said after driving around the place and walking through it there was only about 3-4 inches of dirt on top of solid limestone, which meant we would have had to either chisel or blast a hole for a tower base and it wouldn't have supported the number of cattle I figured we needed to raise in order to make the mortgage payments.  The cattle raising was only a secondary thing to help make the mortgage payments, since I was a newspaper reporter in Waco 30 miles away and gas back then was 28.9 cents a gallon for regular.

The county sheriff also found the area promising too as the sheriff's office had put their county VHF law enforcement repeater tower about a half mile down the road. 

Well after my father-in-law did his inspection we decided not to get the place, although it was a hard decision.

However, a couple years later I got up one Saturday morning and was listening to the local news on the town's radio station.  The newscaster was reading a story about a house east of town that had been hit by lightning the night before and burned to the ground. Fortunately the family living there had gotten out OK, but the house was leveled by the ensuing fire. I could see the remains of the house from our then QTH.

The house he was talking about was the one my wife and I had wanted so dearly to buy.  The house had lightning rods all over it too, but I'm not sure how effective they were in conducting the strike to the ground, or should I say "what ground"?

Sometimes you find a better location just over the horizon from where you first looked.  Again my XYL Cheryl (WY5H) and I sympathize with you and your XYL. 

73 de Tom, WW5L



--- On Wed, 7/8/09, Eric - VE3GSI <ve3gsi at sympatico.ca> wrote:

> From: Eric - VE3GSI <ve3gsi at sympatico.ca>
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Self-support Tower on Rock? - Nixed
> To: "'Towertalk e-Goups'" <TowerTalk at contesting.com>
> Date: Wednesday, July 8, 2009, 8:28 AM
> Thanks guys for the input on towers
> and rocks.
> 
> It seems as much as both my wife and I liked the location
> and the near zero
> floor noise on HF, the house is a no go. The builder is
> holding out for a
> King's ransom and there is little chance of us finding
> common ground on a
> price. In short the house buy is nixed.
> 
> Thanks again,
> Eric.
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Eric - VE3GSI
> > Sent: July-07-09 2:10 PM
> > To: Towertalk e-Goups
> > Subject: [TowerTalk] Self-support Tower on Rock?
> > 
> > TT Gang,
> > 
> > We have been considering moving from our little in
> town lot to the
> > country
> > side. One of the homes on our short list has about 2
> acres of land but
> > there
> > is only a scant few inches of dirt and in some places
> no cover at all
> > over
> > top of what I can only call fractured rock. To me it
> looks like good
> > old
> > limestone and by fractured I mean it has small
> crevices that go into
> > the
> > ground every so often, with areas about, let say about
> the size of car
> > parking spaces.
> > 
> > To be honest, as of yet I have not checked with any
> tower manufacture
> > or
> > dealer yet, this will come too. I do however wish to
> ask those that
> > have
> > firsthand experience erecting self-support towers on
> rock, that would
> > be
> > both advantages and disadvantages. The main
> disadvantage I see is these
> > is
> > no simple way to install a ground system nor do I see
> a easy way to
> > bury
> > feed lines and control cables in the ground without.
> > 
> > Though there is plenty of room for  guyed towers
> I really would like to
> > stay
> > with self support. My one tower is a Trylon 72 ft
> which I was hoping to
> > recycle at any new QTH we might move too and I
> remember Trylon having
> > options for rock, just not sure how well they
> work.  I have not decided
> > if I
> > will recycle my older Delhi second tower - yet.
> > 
> > All ideas welcome?
> > 
> > de Eric - VE3GSI
> 
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> 
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