[TowerTalk] Concrete testing

[Roger (K8RI)]

  I know my response will probably give some apoplexy but...<:-))

On 9/2/2010 11:43 AM, k2qmf at juno.com wrote:
> Yeah!!   Talk about overkill........
>
>
> On Thu, 2 Sep 2010 10:34:23 -0500 Michael Goins<wmgoins at gmail.com>
> writes:
>> Good Lord. Whatever happened top Joe Average Ham and just pouring
>> concrete
Concrete?
>> for a base? I can see all this if you have an gigantic hundreds of
>> feet high
>> superstation, but the average guy doesn't need to have his concrete
>> analyzed.
>>
>> You dig the hole the tower manufactuer specifies and you use the
>> rebar/cage
Rebar?
>> they say. You guy correctly if it is guyed tower.
Yes
>>   You add concrete
Why?

If the tower is no more than 50 or 60 feet with good guying and say a 
tribander or even a tribander and WARC7 or VHF/UHF antennas of 
reasonable size above it, I've gone back to using "dirt bases" (highly 
dependent on soil conditions) although I weld up my own which are far 
more substantial (and heavier) than the commercial ones.

For a guyed tower, the base only does two things...well three counting 
supporting the tower.  It keeps the tower from sinking, and it keeps the 
base of the tower from moving sideways. In good soil and a light tower 
load this is easy to do.  ROHN even sold a "dirt base" for years.

However for larger systems and self supporting, I'd go to the larger 
concrete base with rebar.
>> and make
>> sure there aren't voids. 99.999% of us need nothing more than that.
>>
I seriously doubt even 60 or 70 % go that far, at least not from the 
average 40 to 50 footers I've seen.

73

Roger (K8RI)
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