[BC] CKST 1040 Tower Demolition

[Thomas G. Osenkowsky]

I saw a yard full of weld shop built tower
sections in Aruba. Nicely painted, etc. They
had triangular plates at each foot so the
sections could be screwed together. Not the
male-female mating type of sections. The
plates looked nice, but what's wrong with
this picture?

No holes in which to place the bolts! Those
sections are probably still there. We used a
new Rohn tower. But wait. There's more! The
tower crew from Venezuela told the station owner
they had built a tower before. A 20 foot section
anchored to the side of a building. They came with
no tools, however, the welder did a spectacular job
of welding the sections (mandatory due to the salt
air and constant breeze). They dropped the old, rusted
tower but loosened the wrong guy wires. The old
tower fell within feet of the new sections. They didn't
know what a come-along was. How to tension the guy
wires? It was a mess. I left before I could tune up the
ATU and finish the job properly.

I was told they improperly hoisted the FM antenna and
it snapped in half. It was improperly repaired, high VSWR,
poor coverage. Their engineer climbed the tower and moved
the element arms to lower the VSWR. Sadly, he was killed
riding his motorcycle. Went to pass a line of cars and ran
head-on into a truck.

Tom Osenkowsky, CPBE

> I would never put up a tower built by a 
> welding shop, but brand name used towers are put
> up all the time, and insured by companies like Atlantic
> Risk with no upcharges.