Unfortunately, we may be seeing this more and more. I have been working in the wireless industry for 20 years now and the tower infrastructure is getting older and more stressed every day. I see new antennas going up on towers that, only a few years ago, were considered overloaded. I've seen monopoles reinforced with carbon fiber glued to the outside, PVC pipes filled with cable and concrete, straps and steel on the outside, etc. There is a push to maximize the use of existing towers, but maintainence and periodic inspections seem to be a thing of the past. The more experienced climbers I see inspect the tower on the way up, being sure that everything looks OK. It's always been a dangerous business, I just think the risks are increasing. 73, Joe, K1ike
--- On Tue, 10/28/08, wa5luy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From: wa5luy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Broken Rock MT. tower collapse To: [email protected] Date: Tuesday, October 28, 2008, 1:23 PM Yesterday morning the one of the communications towers on Broken Rock Mt. in western Arkansas collapsed. This self supporting tower was over 200 feet tall and had cell service and the NOAA weather radio for our area. The tower collapsed with a wind of no more than 50 miles per hour and had survived hurricanes Gustov and Ike. Last year I found some large bolts, nuts, washers on the ground at a similar tower where our repeater in Hot Springs is located. We had a tower company inspect our tower and they found loose bolts and one leg connection with all but one bolt missing with no nut. I am mo expert but it appears to me by looking at the leg connection of the collapsed tower the same condition occurred. Both towers were less than 12 years old. Pictures can be seen at http://hsara.org/. Scroll below the map. The moral of this story is check those bolts and check them often. Wayne WA5LUY ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links
