Hi, Joe.
There are two issues that you have rightly attempted to separate in your
continuing saga with the City of Concord. First is the issue of permission.
It seems as though the City now does not require you to get their permission.
I would suggest getting something in writing or, at least a name of the
person you talked to (very important in obtaining sworn depositions later
if necessary to defend yourself against a "red tag" from the City, an
indication that they think you've violated *their* rules).
The second issue is structural soundness. This impacts your plans in
two ways: a) assuring yourself under what circumstances the thing will
come down and how likely those circumstances are and b) meeting the
requirements for your insurance company so that you're covered if it
comes down on your house, on someone else's house, on your neighbor who,
uninvited, is walking around your tower in an 80+ mph windstorm looking
for Toto, etc. Hams are often very willing to take much larger risks in
category a) than commercial designers are. Often this involves financial
limitations, drop zones well away from houses, relatively small and light
things on the tower that will only crush part of the house when it comes
down, etc. Category b) risk is more serious in City neighborhoods where
the houses/people are pretty closely packed, and is not a significant
factor in most rural cases. A good way to think about structural soundness
is asking yourself the question: If I owned this City, how would I, based
on FACTS, assure myself that this thing would be very unlikely to fall
down and hurt me or mine or my humble abode? My answer to this question,
based on calculation I did on my OSCAR setup plans, with radial icing and
80 mph basic wind speed, was quite surprizing and required me to reduce
my tower-based equipment considerably and change tower designs. Ask the
tough questions of the tower manufacturers. Get some professional advice
from a structural engineer. I am getting my plans "stamped" by a PE for
both insurance and building permit reasons. NOTICE: This has NOTHING
to do with permission to put it up. It has to do with soundness and
*** of the design and conformance to the design in the building phase.
All of you wish me luck. I'm going into round 3 with the City Council
next Tuesday. They have until Dec 12 to give me an answer. I almost
have stamped plans from a structural PE based on 65 pages of calculations
and manufacturers' specs. I hope to have a stamped PE communications
effectiveness statement as well, since under PRB-1 that is what the
City should base it's decision on (although, to date, they have been
quite disinterested in that).
Best 73's
Paul, wa0rse@amsat.org
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