Doug and Eric, I will add a few points here, I own and run a 500 foot tall tower in Texas. I purchased a new TWR dual mode strobe system ($17,000.00) along with the tower. At the time it seemed to be a good choice, hindsight is 20-20.
The first two years the red mode system never ran for more than 4 months at a time, TWR was at my site 7 times those first two years. They made one last trip at the two year mark, I have to admit they did all of these repairs to this point under a one-year warranty. At two years they reworked all the hatchplates and replaced all strobe tubes. The system ran for eleven months and went out again. The only problem I ever had was the red mode night strobes, the day mode worked fine so I let it run in the "fail-safe" mode because I did not have the money to fix the system. TWR had quoted me $1,500.00 per hatchplate to repair the system, that did not include the tower crew labor. After two years of running in the fail-safe mode the whole system crashed and burned. I could look up at the strobes and see what looked like flames, I shut the system down and turned in a "NOTAM", Notice to Airmen. About that time I asked the Tower Pro group what they thought of the system I had, not much good was said. I also found out that the white strobe fail-safe mode does not satisfy the FAA or FCC as to tower lights at night, I was actually in violation of the FAA rules! After several NOTAM's and several calls to TWR with quotes starting at $1,500.00 per hatchplate finally going down to $500.00 per hatchplate I gave up and got more advice from the Tower Pro group. They guided me and told me what I needed to look for. I had a tower guy come and remove all hatchplates and bring them down to the ground. Once on the ground it was obvious what was wrong, the cheap terminal strip used by TWR had completely burned up from the 600 volts positive and negative DC that made the system work. TWR sends up those two voltages plus a trigger voltage to fire the strobe. I ran the manufacture of the terminal strip down and their specifications said the strip was only good to 500 volts, you get the picture? Very poor design! I contacted a Tower light company in Tennessee called ITL, they had all of the aftermarket parts I needed to get the system back up at a price of $26.00 per hatchplate, again, get the picture? TWR has a tremendous markup on their parts! I sent the hatchplates back up the tower, the guy connected them and they have been running solid (knock wood) for almost two years now. One other thing, the tower lighting industry (TWR and Flash Tech) are trying to petition the FAA and FCC to make the use of Non-OEM parts in a tower lighting system a violation, sort of like Motorola tried to do back in the late 70's and early 80's. Motorola tried to get the FCC to make a rule that only Motorola parts could be used in the radios to keep them type accepted, that ploy did not work then and I hope it does not work now. Most private tower owners can't afford Flash Tech or TWR prices, not to mention their reliability. Like Eric said, be very careful, the way the rules are written, every licensee on the tower is liable for up to a $10.000.00 fine if the lights are not working properly. Also, be very careful with the red mode LED technology, the advertised 5 year warranties on these systems are not being backed by some of the companies that sell them. Kevin, sorry for the OT post but felt it was important. Paul WB5IDM -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Eric Lemmon Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2005 11:28 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Flash Technology Tower Lighting Doug, I hope your Ham club did not accept any responsibility for the operation or maintenance of the tower lighting, because some of the most severe fines and penalties are for failure to have the tower properly lighted. Fines of $10,000 per day have been levied for lighting violations, so you should avoid even the appearance of being responsible in any way for such equipment. That said, it is not normal for strobes to fail in such a short time. Although I have no experience with Flash Technology equipment, I do know that most strobes in continuous operation should last at least two years- if they are operated within their specifications. If too much power is dissipated in the flash tube, its lifetime will be profoundly curtailed. It is possible that the technician who installed the strobe equipment simply left the power setting at maximum. Contact the manufacturer for specific technical information. Information and links about the lighting requirements for towers can be found here: <http://www.fcc.gov/mb/policy/dtv/lighting.html> and the FAA Advisory Circular can be found here: <http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgAdvisoryCircula r.nsf/0/736f762742f45ab9862569ee0077ef5e/$FILE/AC70-7460-1K.pdf> When a flashing beacon atop a tower fails, the FAA Flight Service Station must be notified immediately so that a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) may be published to warn pilots of the danger. The penalties for failure to report a tower light outage are severe, and the liabilities for an aircraft accident resulting from collision with an unlit tower can run into many millions of dollars. Most tower owners invest in automated monitoring systems that will send a pager and telephone notification to the responsible people and to a central alarm office when an outage occurs. If your tower does not have a monitoring system, someone should visually check at least once each day to ensure that the lights are working. 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY Doug Zastrow wrote: > Hello All, In return for free tower space our ham club baby sits a 360 > ft. guyed tower. Looking for anyone with real-world experience with > Flash Technology FH-324 red/white flash tower obstruction lighting. In > the 18 month period following new installation all three red 'beacons' > have failed. Tower mounted flash heads have a coupling transformer, > trigger transformer, RC network and flash tube. In red beacon failures > how often has trouble been in components *other* than the flash > tube? Is it true red flash tube shelf-life is six months or less? What > has the real-world life expectancy (in operation) of the red flash > tubes been? FYI, trouble was isolated to the flash heads by swapping > cables at the Power Controllers. Trouble stayed with the flash head. > Flash heads failed in succession over a period of 4-5 > months. Moderator: If this is too far OT don't hesitate to > kill. TIA... Doug Zastrow > > > > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS > > + Visit your group "Repeater-Builder" on the web. > > + To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > + Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of > Service. > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > Yahoo! Groups Links Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Repeater-Builder/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
