unused tower wasted

[mmckenna]

I hired a crew a few years ago to take down a 40' tower that had been used for a local VHF voice paging system. The tower had been up since the early 1980's, maybe the late 70's.

The crew lead took one look at it and wisely said "I'm not climbing that P.O.S.". Couldn't argue with them, exact same reason I didn't take it down myself.

They slowly tilted it over with tag lines and a windlass on the far end, then cut it up while in the horizontal position. As suspected, the inside of the legs were well corroded/rusted. Could have easily collapsed with the weight of a human on it.
I think it cost us around $1,800.00. It was worth every penny of that. Of course I had some guy that started asking if he could have it. I said "no" and made sure the tower crew cut it up in little sections and haul it away. It's OK to be a cheap ham. It's not OK to be a dead ham.

The two things they teach you first in tower climbing class is when -not- to climb, and how to do some basic tower inspections. Those two are taught first since they are the two things you should do first when approaching a tower. There's always some tower monkey that will climb anything, but those guys don't always last long.

 

[kb2idx]

.

........ Looks like a really good way to get hurt really good really fast.
Rusted bolts, rust rotted tower sections, questionable guy line attachments---no meaningful tower removal experience......

Talk to a professional tower company and see how much they'd charge to take it down. I think it would be very educational. You might just be surprised how much your broken neck is really worth in dollars and cents.

(btw- OSHA rates tower steeple jacks as ten times more likely to be killed on the job compared to regular construction. ...but boys will be boys !)

Wireless Estimator - US Tower Fatality Tracker - 2003-Present

wirelessestimator.com

Fun reading --bon appetit !


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............................Lauri






.

if you look for me at the site when they're climbing the tower,
I'll be the guy taking pictures FROM THE GROUND!
LoL

 

[StoliRaz]

Whenever I point out something like that, my wife's first reaction is: "You're not buying that!" Not sure why she says that....

Tell her it was free 🙂

 

[kb2idx]

went for a later walk today, approaching the tower building I met up with a
neighbor and asked him if he knew anything about the place. He said "yep"
"that's where all the cops hang out."
Party is over.

 

[mmckenna]

Good lord, a public safety agency relying on that dumpster fire of a tower?

 

[rescuecomm]

A former gas company storage site had a 200 foot guyed tower that had to be taken down immediately. The ham radio group discussed it, but found out that the FAA light on top was burned out. The steeple jack crew refused to climb it and replace the bulb due to rusty base legs. We passed on it too. Two weeks later, a tractor bush hogging the site hit one of the guy anchors and broke it off (corrosion?). The tower collapsed in a twisted mess. No sections straight enough to use.

 

[mastr]

A former gas company storage site had a 200 foot guyed tower that had to be taken down...Two weeks later, a tractor bush hogging the site hit one of the guy anchors and broke it off (corrosion?)...

The "corrosion" probably started with a conversation like this- "What would that $%^&ing tower hit if it happened to just fall down?"..."There isn't much out there it could hurt"..."I better go do some mowing"..."Watch out for the guy wires (wink, wink)