[TowerTalk] Fall Zone

[Patrick Greenlee]

What was at one time the tallest man made structure in the world, a TV 
tower at Caprock New Mexico, had available, at extra cost, de-icing 
accessory equipment.  It was decided to forgo the extra expense and the 
tower fell down during an ice storm that made the surrounding 
countryside a federally proclaimed disaster area. This was the winter of 
1960-1961. The tower was 1610 ft tall.

Overhead power distribution lines on wooden poles brought electricity to 
the town of Tatum NM from the town of Lovington, 22 miles away. Most of 
the 22 miles of poles were snapped off a few feet above ground.  Once a 
wire on one side of a crossarm broke under the load of ice 4-6 inches in 
diameter on the power wires it all came down like a row of dominoes. A 
motorist observing the action said the poles snapped off one after 
another with sounds like artillery fire.

I walked to school the following morning and was the only person there 
adult or child.

Patrick        NJ5G

On 7/8/2019 1:11 PM, Ron Baran wrote:
> I think of a crank up tower with a DB18 atop as a work of kinetic art.  I can understand that others may not appreciate it but I'm hoping that no takes a saws-all to the base.  The maim issue with all towers is their safety.  I've seen lots of towers that were under guyed, over loaded with antennas and poorly maintained.  A municipality has every obligation to insist that a tower conform to wind loading requirements of all other structures in the jurisdiction.
>
> When you dropped the 200 foot guyed tower by severing one set of guys you turned it into a free standing tower with a large amount of force pulling it over.  Free standing towers, especially monopole towers, tend to fail at the base.  Way too much pressure on what is usually a set of bolts.
>
> I'm kind of interested in any engineering research into tower failures.
>
> I've seen photos of an earlier version of my tower that, indeed, failed between sections two and three of a four section tower.  Severely overloaded when a squall showed up unannounced.
>
> Thanks for your comments Wilson.
>
> 73,
>
> Ron
> W9XS
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: TowerTalk <towertalk-bounces at contesting.com> on behalf of Wilson Lamb <infomet at embarqmail.com>
> Sent: Monday, July 8, 2019 10:20 AM
> To: undefined
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Fall Zone
>
> I wouldn't want a neighbor's tower/Yagi looming over my backyard...and I love towers!
> The fall zone idea seems like simple good manners.
>   I have been loosely involved in dropping 200' BC towers, dropped by cutting the rods at one guy anchor, thus losing all guys on that side.
> They fell absolutely full length, with a few sections not even bent!
> I think a foundation failure (soil, bolt, gin pole) would drop a crankup to full length.
> Is there any experience available on this?
> WL
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk at contesting.com
> https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flists.contesting.com%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Ftowertalk&data=02%7C01%7C%7C085de912309948b01a0008d703b7d8ad%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636981960473625726&sdata=sko0cDoc%2BZ9qW%2BT3pTNMG2AKVmdtKJJRo7zV2UHOC%2Fg%3D&reserved=0
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>