[TowerTalk] Towable towers available from the government

[Patrick Greenlee]

Back in the olden days a couple flying friends had their sights set on  a 
P-51 at a ridiculously low price and wanted me to partner with them. Both 
had A&E tickets and one had some experience on P-51's.  I was jazzed for 
about 30 seconds when my calculations of cost for fuel per flight hour burst 
my balloon.  Those suckers are thirsty and like the premium stuff.  I filed 
it away in memory next to the desire to own a drivable Mercedes Gull Wing 
Coupe which appreciated in cost as fast or faster than my salary until they 
were essentially no longer reasonably available.

I too used to buy some surplus stuff and it was never 
decommissioned/demilled.  I have multiple friends with privately owned 
surplus deuce and a half trucks.  Regarding the towers, it is too bad a 
special case couldn't be made for ham affiliated emergency communications 
operations.  Plenty of disaster comm sites are in various Government 
facilities from municipalities to state or Fed. Of course this would require 
the left hand to know what the right hand was doing.

Patrick AF5CK

-----Original Message----- 
From: Roger (K8RI)
Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2013 2:35 PM
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Towable towers available from the government

On 8/15/2013 11:09 AM, Jim Lux wrote:
> 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"
>

I used to bid on govt surplus, but they were much more liberal in those
days. I don't know if its changed, but the bidder took full
responsibility from getting it off site to what ever it was used for.
Back in the late 60's they had a lot of 6 P-51s that were all airworthy
and mostly full gas tanks.  If capable you could fly 'em home.  They
went for $7500 each and the only demil was to remove any armament which
was usually  six 50's.. Hard points and drop tanks were yours.  However
the FAA insisted that the "drop" as in drop tanks be disabled before
flight.  Of course you could remove them and truck 'em home.  Before
surplus planes became desirable some companies would purchase some
models for parts and the fuel in them.  Can you imagine cililians
removing the six 50's and dropping them off on the way out?  They may
have had a mechanic there, but security was minimal.


Back then I made $600 a month which was well above average wage, but
that means each P-51 would have cost me a bit over a year's wages and
probably a property settlement.  Just  think, each one that's airworthy
now would be worth about a million dollars.  "Spit shined" and in really
good shape would add about 50%.  Unfortunately keeping one airworthy
would likely cost more than purchasing  most single engine, high
performance private planes per year.

Back in the early 80's or 90's I had a tour of Willow Grove Naval Air
Station. After the tour they stuck my clearance in my shirt pocket with
the admonition to always keep it in sight, Then turned me loose with my
cameras with instructions of you can shoot anything except XXX
http://www.rogerhalstead.com/p3s.htm

>
> 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.

When I was an instrument tech, excess "stuff" went into a pile and
they'd auction it off a couple times a year to employees only. Potential
liability became an issue some time back and I believe they finally quit
the excess auction.  but private corporation's liability and the
government's are quite different.

73,

Roger (K8RI)

_______________________________________________



_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk at contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk