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

[Hans Hammarquist]

Hi Markku,


As I have lived in both Sweden and USAI think I can give you some extra insight in the mechanism erecting aradio tower in USA.


USA is a country ruled by lawyers andinsurance company. That put some restrictions on what you dare to do as you most likely will get sued if somebody feels they can get hurt or have some other "economic impact". Lately we have also seen an influence of what iscommonly called “tree huggers”, people that have an urge to stopanything that remotely can be called “development” in the name of“saving the earth and the nature”.


During my time in Sweden (I moved toUSA 30 years ago) I erected many antennas and whatever you needed to“get the signal out”. Nobody even bothered to say anything unlessit disturbed their TV reception to an intolerable level.


When I came here, neighbors neverbothered me with my radio experiments. I lived then in Brooklyn, NY.I still have a 30 foot mast on my roof there. (It's “grand-fathered”to stay there.)


A few years ago I decided to erect a 85 foot towerin Vermont. I experienced a strong resistance from neighbors thatdidn't want “their horizon be disturbed by technology”. 1 ½ yearlater I had my permit. “My town hadn't discovered the power orrequesting a professional engineering evaluation or it would have costme a lot more than the application fee.


As you can see from the responses atTT, USA is a stronghold for bureaucrats and "tree huggers" that know how to make life aroller-coaster ride. Do what you can to keep they out of Finland. Youmanage to push out both Swedes and Russians in the past. Keep up thegood work.


73 de,


Hans – N2JFS/SM6BXX



-----Original Message-----
From: Markku Oksanen <markku.a.oksanen at kolumbus.fi>
To: towertalk <towertalk at contesting.com>; Markku Oksanen <markku.a.oksanen at kolumbus.fi>
Sent: Fri, Feb 21, 2014 5:24 am
Subject: [TowerTalk] Tower regulations for home brew towers in the US?


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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