[TowerTalk] Towable towers available from the government

[Jim Lux]

On 8/14/13 8:00 PM, Roger (K8RI) wrote:
> On 8/14/2013 1:41 PM, Doug Ronald wrote:
>> One small hitch (pun noted), they need to be destroyed before you can
>> haul
>> them away.
>>
>
> I wonder why the de mil portable towers?  They aren't a threat and could
> be put to good use by some EOCs around the country.
> Our EOC has a ham station right in the 911 call center which is part of
> the law enforcement center.
>


Could be that they are of uncertain quality/condition, and they want to 
make sure that they don't get resold as "almost new condition" by a less 
than reputable dealer.

Maybe they were exposed to something that might cause internal damage 
(e.g. they were flooded in Katrina or Sandy or something, and they've 
been immersed in salt water) or even just sitting outside in the rain 
and elements for a few years.

Maybe the steel is in ok shape, but the cables/sheaves/moving mechanical 
parts are sketchy?

It might cost more to evaluate them than to just sell as scrap metal. 
After all, they're being sold as a single 100 ton lot, rather than 
individual, and that's almost certainly because there's no budget to 
separately inventory and sell them.  They're probably in a big heap, and 
the word went out: "we want to use that land under the pile" or it's 
"Let's get rid of that pile of junk, put it on the excess list"


At JPL, we get rid of a lot of old stuff that is potentially useful, but 
it's not like we have funding to go through and pick out the good 
slotted lines from the ones that are broken. Nor do we have the funding 
or space to just keep the stuff in storage cabinets on the off chance 
that someone might use it in the future.