Feb
17
Written by:
2/17/2011 5:19 AM
Charles “Buc” Fitch is a frequent contributor to Radio World.A recent blurb about the
tallest wooden tower reminds me that at last check, wooden towers were still allowed and are actually detail-specified in the Building Officials Code (BOCA), in the area of the text where EIA standards are taken into the code for steel towers.
The tallest wooden broadcast install I ever encountered was at the FM in Montour Falls, N.Y., near Watkins Glen. They had two tiers of these big wooden telephone poles strapped together to make nearly 100 feet of guyed vertical elevation ... akin to the big main mast in a circus tent. That’s gone now, replaced with a self-supporting steel tower.
Since wood introduces little influence to the RF, in a few instances I’ve specified a wooden telephone pole for an FM antenna support. A 35-foot pole with a three-bay mounted on it on the top of a tall building is about an nondirectional an FM as you can have.
Fiberglass is another great option ... the people who make sailing masts can make you an FM support.
For years, WSSV in Stillwater, N.Y., had their FM mounted on a telephone pole (the hill was the real tower), just barely making OST-65 compliance on the ground.
The biggest wooden building that most of us will ever encounter is the
dirigible hanger at Tillamock, Ore.
Finally, wooden bridges are making a comeback as they can actually last longer with less maintenance in high salt environments. A tidbit for you: Only center-cut lumber can be used for the spans!
1 comment(s) so far...
Musings on Wooden Towers
Buc's recollection (as always) is right on the money. I was the Group Manager of The Sabre Radio Group in Elmira, NY when we bought what would become WNGZ-FM, Montour Falls, and inherited that contraption of a wooden tower. We called it "The 8th Wonder of the World", and it was in really bad shape. The poles were rotting and sagging to the point where we had Beam Tilt to Mars. Our regular tower guy wouldn't go near it, and when we asked a tree contractor to climb it with his spikes and strap, he got half way up and prompty quit. The other part of this story is that the "Transmitter Building" consisted of the back of an Army Surplus communications truck, which of course was infested with just about every creature found in the Southern Tier of New York State. To eveyone's amazement, the little Armstrong Transmitter performed like a champ under these extreme conditions, and I personally called Sinan at Armstrong to congratulate him.
Thankfully, the site is now safely occupied by a nice free-standing tower. But, man-O-man, "The 8th Wonder of the World" certainly kept this GM awake on more than a few stormy nights.....
Thanks for the memories, Buc !!
Dennis Ryan
Clifton Park, NY
By Dennis Ryan on
2/22/2011 12:33 PM
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