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"Breaking news" and "tower site" are two phrases that normally don't go together - and when they do, it's usually bad news.

So it was last weekend, when we received word that the 1360-foot tower of KETV (Channel 7) in Omaha collapsed late Friday night - and then, just hours later, that the 731-foot tower of WIFR (Channel 23) in Rockford, Illinois had come down in 80 mph winds as a fierce storm hit northern Illinois.

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http://rfupdate.broadcastengineering.com/july_15/index.htm#omaha

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=36&u_sid=789177

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=36&u_sid=789337

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=36&u_sid=790991

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=36&u_sid=795518

http://rfupdate.broadcastengineering.com/july_15/index.htm#wind
 

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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 07-15-2003, 03:56 PM:
 
Here in England we had a spectacular 365 metre tower collapse at Emley in Yorkshire On 19th March 1969; luckily, no-one was killed. The tower was quite new, having been built in 1964, to replace a much smaller original one. The third tower, which still stands, is a very unusual concrete structure, a well-known landmark visible from many miles away. There have recently been plans to make it a listed structure.

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/emley/emley.asp
 

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Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 07-15-2003, 05:13 PM:
 
With the hurricane season in full swing, and the latest battering the Texas Gulf Coast, and with some of our members involved in broadcasting or ham radio, I wonder if there are any precautions that can be taken to protect antennas threatened by high winds? Would loosening (or tightening) the guy wire cables
be any advantage?
 

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Posted by Sam Hunter (Member # 1119) on 07-15-2003, 05:34 PM:
 
Nope, you don't dare loosen anything on a tower. If there is a weak spot on a tower then it should have taken care of before hand. I have seen towers erected that hand excellent wind load studies on it but no body considered the load after about 100 antennas and cables where placed on it effectively quadrupling the wind load and the owner had to go in and move folks off or combine systems and such. Sometimes there’s just nothing you can do to prevent it. We had a TV broadcast tower collapse killing several workers down here a few years back and it turns out that they had over tightened the guy lines way too much on one side and being it was 1500 feet and over thirty years old that was all it needed to collapse.
I work in the communications industry and I can tell you that a lot of towers out there are not taken care of. There is a lot of maintenance that has to be done to keep things right, checking guy stubs, u clamps, grips, tension, level, etc. Sometimes they go down because of the foundation giving way as in a washout or saturated soil.
Damn I can go on can't I?
Anyway best thing to do is not be around one in a storm period.
 

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Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 07-15-2003, 06:57 PM:
 
One TV station I worked at had a 1000 ft tower with a 70 ft antenna mast on top of that. I used to ride the elevator to the top of the tower for kicks & giggles and take some pictures.

The tower would sway 40 ft side-to-side in the wind. We weren't allowed to go up there on days that had winds which exceeded a certain velocity. It was a kick though!

You could always tell the wind direction by looking at which guy-wires were tight and which had slack. It IS important NOT to over-tighten guy wires. Towers must be allowed to sway or they will tumble!

>>> Phil
 

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Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 07-15-2003, 07:51 PM:
 
WAVE in Louisville has a tower with an elevator. It is huge. But the thought of incidents like this always made me just a little bit nervous working at the xmtrs.
 

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Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 07-15-2003, 07:57 PM:
 
Did you fellows hear about the two "Antenna Towers" that got married?

It really improved their Reception.
 

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Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 07-15-2003, 10:41 PM:
 
Sounds like another joke thread coming: RF Geek Jokes
 

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Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 07-16-2003, 01:07 AM:
 
I went out to an AM site with a 5 antenna directional array right after a hurricane (the next morning), & four of them were lying down. That was pretty!
 

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Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 07-16-2003, 01:37 AM:
 
KVLY, formerly KT HI (named that for good reason) has supposedly the tallest structure in North America. The tower is I think 2360 feet tall, and has elevator that go all but the last 100 feet of the tower. I am hoping to see this thing later in the summer.

Josh
 

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Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 07-16-2003, 11:24 AM:
 
Sam,
Did you see the cell tower collapse of 1988 near Lake Pontchartrain? Actually it was IN Lake Pontchartrain, or more specifically the last 200 feet or so.

I used to work for Bellsouth back in '87 and '88, in their RF engineering department, and we had one of our towers fall. It was a 500 - 600 foot guyed tower, with Raydome Microwave repeaters, and the tower was built according to the plans and specs. However, somebody "sub-leased" part of the tower to another provider and it threw off the wind load balance.

When "THE" storm hit, the wind load "torqued" the tower, and the guy arms just ripped off the tower. The tower fell, mostly into the woods, but the last 100 feet or so ended up in the water.

Never saw it though, I just worked in the CADD Engineering office.
 

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Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 07-16-2003, 03:40 PM:
 

quote:

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You could always tell the wind direction by looking at which guy-wires were tight and which had slack. It IS important NOT to over-tighten guy wires. Towers must be allowed to sway or they will tumble!

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Another issue with guyed towers, which goes back to what Sam was saying about maintnenance, is that those guys have to be tensioned to specific levels (what is it... foot-pounds??). A tower can develop "bends" if the guys aren't tensioned right. Some cables can also stretch a little with time, so checking tension on some regular frequency is a good idea.

I don't know the criticality issues of this, but I imagine that a tower that's not straight can't be anywhere near as strong as it was designed to be.

I had a tower in S. Oregon that had so many kinks in it, it looked like the former owner put it up himself with a screwdriver and a crescent wrench. It took a tower company almost a year and several visits to pull the bends out of it.
 

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Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 07-17-2003, 12:42 AM:
 
I was wrong. the number I was looking for was 2063 feet. KXJB came in a close second with 2060 feet.

Josh
 

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Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 07-17-2003, 01:41 PM:
 
I will confess: *I* am the one responsible for all of this!! I will keep knocking down towers until the people who run TV get their heads out of their asses and STOP putting those stupid logos on the screen during the entire show!! Especially alarming is that they are even doing this on HDTV, which is supposedly supposed to provide a better picture, but they're ruining it with on-screen crap! No sane person could possibly watch a show like that, and this has gone on far too long and I've decided to take matters into my own hands!
 

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Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-17-2003, 02:02 PM:
 
Jesse: With that trail of destruction, are you THE "Hurricane Jesse"?:

http://www.restless.coolfreepages.com./hurricane.htm
 

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Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 07-17-2003, 02:17 PM:
 
Jesse: I agree 100%! Those F*CKING logos gotta go!

I was watching a movie this morning on Showtime HD and all of a sudden this weasel-ass company sneakes their MF! GD! POS! "SHO" logo on the lower right!

It's bad enough we have to endure this on regular OTA TV and cable...now they want us to pay for it too?

OBTW: Have a nice day all...

>>> Phil
 

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Posted by Sam Hunter (Member # 1119) on 07-17-2003, 02:20 PM:
 
Hey Barry,
I don't recall that one but the circumstances you spoke of indicates what goes wrong with towers a lot.

On another note, my wife and I are hoping we get to come up to your new Drive In in mid August. Hopefully we can meet up
 

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Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 07-17-2003, 02:44 PM:
 
If you want to see a show... check with me before you come up. It's looking like it may be the weekend of the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th at the earliest before we get open.
 

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Posted by Sam Hunter (Member # 1119) on 07-17-2003, 03:04 PM:
 
Will Do!
 

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