Police radio tower falls on parked cars in Lexington, KY

[davewhall29]

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - An auxiliary communications tower fell to the ground at the Lexington Police West Sector Roll Call building on Wednesday morning. The tower is used to rebroadcast radio signals throughout the city so that officers are sure to have good coverage. Officers said the loss of the tower wouldn't have an impact, though, because they have so many of them.

Police radio tower falls on parked cars in Lexington

 

[INDY72]

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - An auxiliary communications tower fell to the ground at the Lexington Police West Sector Roll Call building on Wednesday morning. The tower is used to rebroadcast radio signals throughout the city so that officers are sure to have good coverage. Officers said the loss of the tower wouldn't have an impact, though, because they have so many of them.

"wouldn't have an impact" Umm OK, tell this to the insurance companies of the cars it landed on? And then tell it to the folks that have to pay to rebuild the site?

 

[br0adband]

Should have said:

"Officers said the loss of the tower wouldn't have an impact on current departmental communications, though, because they have so many other towers to ensure redundancy and the coverage is more than adequate to fill in for the loss of this tower until it can be repaired and all insurance claims resolved."

Least that's what I'd have written.

 

[redhelmet13]

From what I saw on the video and the interview with one of the PD officers, the tower was up there in years and should have been inspected for corrosion and such. Here in Ft. Worth one of the 40 year old towers that was part of the cities trunked system was inspected and deemed unsafe. The city approved replacing it, a new and far better structure was built and the old tower was removed.

 

[SCPD]

Thankfully no one was seriously hurt or killed. Inspect those towers!.

 

[zz0468]

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - An auxiliary communications tower fell to the ground

I hate when that happens.

 

[KR4BD]

The tower came down in rather heavy winds that were experienced today. I believe it is NOT part of the new 800 mHz trunked digital system, but rather part of the older VHF system which is being phased out at this time.

 

[jparks29]

The Dep't is refusing to pay for the damaged cars, stating that, while it is regrettable, the tower was 'properly following departmental guidelines', and is covered by qualified immunity. The Lexington police chief is quoted as saying 'This is an isolated incident', and is assuring the community that future towers will be trained to higher standards. The tower is on paid leave pending an investigation,

 

[poltergeisty]

LMAO!

 

[902]

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - An auxiliary communications tower fell to the ground at the Lexington Police West Sector Roll Call building on Wednesday morning. The tower is used to rebroadcast radio signals throughout the city so that officers are sure to have good coverage. Officers said the loss of the tower wouldn't have an impact, though, because they have so many of them.

Police radio tower falls on parked cars in Lexington

Oopsie!

There are some agencies that were (or are STILL) using towers they had during the days when their operations were just above AM radios in the 30s and 40s (you might recall reading "Gene C. Hughes'" description of that in his Police Call books). Some of those agencies were extremely concerned because some of them may have had a similar incident, as the older towers were intended to be THE single radiator, but were later retrofitted with "Lingo poles" and heavy (wind-load-wise) multi-bay low band DB-212 antennas. Then mutual aid antennas, and secondary channel antennas, and auxiliary antennas, and maybe a few microwave dishes, too. It's surprising this hasn't happened more.

The Dep't is refusing to pay for the damaged cars, stating that, while it is regrettable, the tower was 'properly following departmental guidelines', and is covered by qualified immunity. The Lexington police chief is quoted as saying 'This is an isolated incident', and is assuring the community that future towers will be trained to higher standards. The tower is on paid leave pending an investigation,

You had me! Got to love sovereign immunity. That's probably what would happen to me if my car were parked under a fallen tower.

 

[lep]

Oopsie!

There are some agencies that were (or are STILL) using towers they had during the days when their operations were just above AM radios in the 30s and 40s (you might recall reading "Gene C. Hughes'" description of that in his Police Call books). /QUOTE]

When I was a child in Little Rock, AR during the 1950s, KASP (Headquarters, Arkansas State Police) could be heard on many AM broadcast receivers between the end of the broadcast allocation and the 160 metre amateur band. The tower was a free standing, non-guyed broadcast type tower. It was a loss to radio history when the call sign became KKC227 on a VHF frequency. KASP met their 7 megacycle police network traffic schedule using an old "bug" key and an NC-183 receiver. Ahh, the OLDe days!

 

[quarterwave]

Glad they let the taxpayers know the money was spent for no good reason. If it has "no impact" why was it there?

People don't have any common sense.

 

[jparks29]

If it has "no impact" why was it there?

To justify next years budget.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

One of my clients had a substantially high guyed ROHN tower placed outside their 911 center right in the middle of a busy employee parking lot. One day right before hurricane Andrew I happened to be walking from the EOC to the 911 center and noticed that at one of the guy points, the large galvanized nuts holding the cable were rusted totally through. I went to the radio shop and mentioned to my client he just might want to take a look. About a week or two later they had taken all but the last 50 feet of the tower down, leaving just enough for microwave and some support radios. It is amazing how these towers get neglected and wear out over time. In my case I believe the lawn maintenance folks were using a weed whip around the guy point and eventually ruined the plating.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Bad Tower, no donuts for you!

 

[SCPD]

Talk about police tower brutality!

 

[unitcharlie]

That tower had been upright for a number of years, back to the '60s that I can remember. Perhaps the most critical user on the tower is Blue Grass Airport Public Safety (which would explain the lack of Crash Fone checks at 0806 daily).... Lexington Police have their "Channel 7" repeater there, and all of their freqs as mobiles... Community Corrections has their "Channel 3" repeater on that tower, with FX1s for all of their freqs.... Sanitary Sewers had the industrial waste monitoring radio tx on there as well.... The City owns most of the property on the north side of Old Frankfort from the Lex Fire Training Center to the other side of New Circle.... Much of this is located on the old land fill, the remains of the old jail can be seen there as well....

 

[RRR]

...Am I the only one who noticed the VHF antenna (DB ___) on the torn up tower?

 

[KR4BD]

...Am I the only one who noticed the VHF antenna (DB ___) on the torn up tower?

See my post above.....