[TowerTalk] Fwd: Tower regulations for home brew towers in the US?

Fri Feb 21 09:49:34 EST 2014

Ditto, George.    I am in rural area of south central Oklahoma and have 
built (with contractor help) 2 houses 1800+ and 5000+ sqft and the only 
permit or inspection was for the septic systems.  I have one 
tilt-crankup tower in place and two more towers purchased but not 
erected yet, a 49 Ft Rohn to build a knockoff of the Hy-Gain Hy-Tower 
and and the bottom 40 ft of a 100 ft tower with its triangular legs 14 
ft (not inches) on centers on top of which I will mount a crank-up tower.

Although I have a good friend who has MS in Mech Eng from UCLA and 35 
years of hands on experience to sanity check my designs and participate 
in my projects I have no restrictions of any kind EXCEPT as relates to 
the FAA. My antenna farm has 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile of space so I will 
never have towers that can fall on a neighbor's property. I know this is 
not the norm and I feel sympathetic toward those who are trying to run 
the maze of regulations, restrictions, and prohibitions relating to 
antennas and towers in densely populated areas.

I do try to meet or exceed, if not the letter of the various codes, the 
intent and not short cut good engineering practice.  Although I am 
ensconced deep within tornado alley our county design wind speed is 
70MPH which I try to always exceed. Being in agricultural production 
(Black Angus ranch) we can't get home owner's add-on coverage for towers 
and the rates available to us drive us to self insure and take the risk. 
As a result of this I tend to be conservative in design and not push the 
envelope.

Later this year I hope to be tackling the tower on top of the tower 
project. Anyone interested in riding along as a consultant or interested 
bystander is most welcome.  The biggest unanswered question is what self 
standing crank-up tower to put on top of the 40 ft tower. Second most 
important unanswered question is whether to mount the top tower on top 
of the 40 footer or to have some overlap to make it easier to transfer 
the forces involved in holding the upper tower erect. I'm thinking 50 ft 
for the upper tower as a minimum and not to exceed 100ft (most likely 
around 60 or so for a mounted antenna height above grade of over 100 ft.

I'm good in QRZ to get my email address for PM.

Patrick NJ5G

On 2/21/2014 7:51 AM, Matt wrote:
> Or if you lived in South Florida you are height limited, need a building permit, engineering drawings stamped by a licensed professional engineer certifying that your tower can withstand 130mph wind speed and various other hoop jumping.
>
> Matt w1mbb
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: George Dubovsky
> Sent: 2/21/2014 8:04 AM
> To: towertalk
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Fwd: Tower regulations for home brew towers in the US?
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: George Dubovsky <n4ua.va at gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 6:43 AM
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Tower regulations for home brew towers in the US?
> To: Markku Oksanen <markku.a.oksanen at kolumbus.fi>
>
>
> Hello Markku,
>
> It depends on where you live in the US and who lives near you. If you live
> in a housing development, near other people who might be affected by your
> construction, then regulations and insurance coverage do come into play.
> And some of the States in these United States seem to be more concerned
> with regulating every part of you life than other States do.
>
> I live on a farm in semi-rural Virginia, and if I wanted to construct a
> tower of just about any height, out of just about any material, there would
> be no one telling me I couldn't do it. In fact, I designed and fabricated
> all of the bearings and floating guy rings for my 105 foot rotating tower,
> although the tower sections themselves are Rohn commercial pieces. I like
> tower welding, but not that much... ;-)
>
> 73,
>
> geo - n4ua
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 5:24 AM, Markku Oksanen <
> markku.a.oksanen at kolumbus.fi> wrote:
>
>> All
>> Just because I am curious:
>> Here at OH-land even large towers can be home brew just like my 160 and
>> 145 foot rotating towers.These have been made by a private small company
>> that made perhaps 200 towers through the years.Building permit and zoning
>> never questioned the "engineering" of the towers as the responsibility in
>> the end rests with the owner.In addition, home owner insurance happily
>> includes towers and covers damage without question.
>> How is the situation in the US?  Looks like most towers are commercial
>> (Rohn, couple others) and it seems that a "professional engineer"
>> (correct??) needs to look at the mechanics of the whole thing in order to
>> get a permit to put up a tower.
>> So, how, if at all, is it possible to build your own large towers?  Does
>> anybody do this?
>> The towers I have are 1.5 feet a side with 2 inch tubes, inverted U (0.7
>> inch) "cross bars".  Only guyed at two levels and full of aluminium, 8000
>> lb steel guy wires and ball bearing guy rings.  And they have survived some
>> crazy storm too in the past 15 years.
>> MarkkuOH2RA/OG2A/WW1C
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
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