Dear All,
Visited this site with a broadcast engineer about 10 years ago. Huge loss.
http://www.weau.com/home/headlines/WEAU_13_tower_collapses_in_Fairchild.html
Thankfully no one got hurt.
Sincerely,
Joe Satnik
How does a 2000 foot tower just collapse? I thought those things had fairly rigorous inspection requirements?
Dear All,
We had a thunder-snow storm going on at the time 40 miles to the west. I’m sure there was a big ice/slush load on the tower. 30 mph winds on the ground, don’t know how much stronger at 2000 feet.
I suppose you would have to inspect every weld on the tower, by what methods, I’m not sure.
Other stations were also knocked off the air, though not by tower collapses.
Most likely antenna icing causing transmitter shutdown. (Ham radio operators would understand.)
Sincerely,
Joe Satnik
Edit: Added “by what methods, I’m not sure.”
We had two radio towers felled by the Earth Liberation Front eco-terrorists about 4 - 5 years ago. This smells like that.
Dear David,
Well, we’ll have to see what the official accident report says.
Did ELF claim responsibility for your 2 towers?
I know there is a requirement for painting towers, not sure how often.
Every time you paint, it adds a lot of weight to tower, (unless it it stripped first, not sure that is ever done).
Over the last 40 years, how many coats? That subtracts from the load bearing capabilities of the tower.
Coats and coats of paint coving up a bad/rusting weld? Hence, I’m not sure what inspection methods are used to detect a bad weld. (At least 1 weld per foot of tower = 2000 welds?)
Sincerely,
Joe Satnik
Edit: grammar
Imagine if the was lead paint. ELF did claim responsibility for the two radio towers, although they were not as tall.
Well, what goes up must come down.