[TowerTalk] Protecting Aluminum Antennas

[Patrick Greenlee]

I defer to the experts.  I'm no camy wizard, I just wear the stuff not 
design it.  I am in a rather rural location with neighbors at 1/4 mile 
and farther, have no nearby airports (several but 30 miles away in 
various directions), and could paint my towers and antennas 
international orange with fluorescent green contrast diagonal stripes if 
I wanted to and no well intentioned person or group of busy bodies could 
change my mind. Out here there are no permits and no inspections for 
electrical or mechanical or anything else except for septic tank 
installs.  The only oversight for my towers is FAA but I don't go that high.

Patrick        NJ5G

On 3/22/2016 8:42 AM, jimlux wrote:
> On 3/22/16 6:01 AM, Patrick Greenlee wrote:
>> Want your antenna to more often go unnoticed?  Take a hint from some of
>> the camouflage  patterns used on warships.  Visually break up the
>> silhouette of the elements and boom by painting them in 2-3 shades such
>> as light grey, black, and an intermediate grey in an irregular random
>> pattern.
>>
>
> I'm not sure that this camouflage technique actually works in an 
> objective test. A lot of camouflage, particularly older styles, was 
> designed by artists according to what they thought would work.
>
> Warship camouflage was designed to make it hard to get an accurate 
> bearing and speed from a long distance away, not to hide the ship. So 
> there were various "dazzle" patterns used which disrupted the 
> characteristic outlines (particularly when you're looking through 
> haze, smoke, fog through a telescope, periscope, etc.).  I'm not sure 
> that's a valid approach for an antenna (except maybe a big dish?)
>
> Other camouflage makes the thing you're hiding look like something 
> else (e.g. cell towers as trees), but that's a pretty tough trick when 
> you're trying to hide something against the sky, which is pretty 
> bright, and anything you put up is going to be darker.
>
> I think that your best bet is something that doesn't have specular 
> reflections or glint (which really attracts attention).  A light grey 
> probably works pretty well as a general thing.  I believe the phrase 
> is "shape, shine, shadow" (from interpreting reconnaissance photos): 
> you want to make the shape unfamiliar, not be shiny, nor have shadow 
> details (paint the bottom light, and the top dark, so that when 
> illuminated from above, it looks evenly shaded)
>
> If your tower or antenna will be viewed against a neighboring 
> mountainside, then the grays/browns/greens (according to your local 
> vegetation.. here in SoCal, light brown would be best, except during 
> the 3-4 weeks a year when it's actually green, like now)
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk