A whole big bunch of thanks to everyone who is following this thread and is
kind enough to lend me a word or two.
I'm to the point of nausea whenever I think about the city.
While I was watching the 49'ers lose yet another game in overtime on Sunday, I
began day dreaming about my proposed installation. Hams are known for
creativity. Perhaps I needed to make some compromises and use a little good
old ingenuity.
I got out all the wonderful tower manufacturer catalogs at half time. I think
I'll always enjoy reading about a 100' Glen Martin aluminum monster with a
Hazer tram device that acts like an elevator for your antennas. Dream on
Joey-boy!
Back to reality, and back to US Tower. "What can I do with this TMM series?"
I begin to think. Like the MA tubular stuff, this is marketed to the "antenna
challenged" among us. They all nest down to about 12'. The TMM-433HD says it
will handle 24 square feet at 50mph. Without doing complicated math, I've
come to realize that for 70mph ratings, take about 1/3 of the number at 50mph.
(Techies: Don't agonize over this simplification, its just a conservative
rough-guess number). That leaves me with a good 8 square feet. My planned
load will be around 6.
Hmm, this is starting to look promising. Two things come to mind as the
endorphins begin to activate, and the 49'ers begin to self destruct:
1) When I built my observatory, I went over all the municipal code regarding
out-buildings. I remember a restriction about roof heights for structures,
blah blah blah, 16'. This tower will nest down to about 12'. Maybe there's a
loop hole there. (BTW, the observatory didn't need a permit, it was too
small).
2) I already sold the neighbors on the tubular design, and in the process
disparaged the classic triangular design with cross bracing. That was dumb.
However, most of the neighbors I've talked to don't seem to have any
objections about antennas per-se, but about views, ugliness, aesthetics, etc.
If this thing nests down to 12', most people won't be able to see it at all.
Heck, if this weren't such a new neighborhood (1993) there would be a few
mature trees to hide even a 40'. All our trees are currently puny.
I think I can sell that. "Hey neighbors, I've found an even better solution
than the tubular, which nests at well over 20 feet"! The TMM-433HD is a four
section crank-up. It isn't quite as tall as the MA40 tubular, 33' as opposed
to 40', but I'll survive. Remember, with a planned load of 6 square feet, I'd
be at the threshold of the MA40 capacity. This should be no problem for the
433HD.
Recap:
Why am I battling with the city? Because I need to put up a tower that has
all the permits. Why? To show an insurance adjuster should the unfortunate
occur.
I'm pretty sure that 12' tower would not need a permit, not at 12'. With my
planned installation, if it blew over while at 12' it couldn't hit the house
or fence anyway.
But what about when its cranked up to 33'? Well, the neighbors would not be
surprised to see it because they are all educated by yours truly. "Hey,
looky, Joe must be a-talking on his Ham radidiao!"
The city should have no need to be involved here, and should they knock on the
door, can't I say "Oopps, must have turned the crank too far, let me just
adjust this here... There we go: 12' and legal beagle!" Besides, we all do a
lot of operating after dark anyway.
The insurance question might be a bit more tricky, but I think I could live
with it.
Now then, if I do this, nobody (from the city) will be checking the cement
hole, or looking over US Tower's UBC calculations. Is that a bad thing?
What's wrong with this picture? Is this an "end run"? Should I be excited?
Will it work about as well as the 49'ers in overtime?
Here's a practical question that will need to be asked eventually no matter
what I do: Are the crank-up assemblies on these towers really made well?
What I mean is: Can you reliably crank the thing up every night and down
every day, or are they cheap and made to be used once a year? I've used a
come-along before, and the winch assemblies on towers look like about the same
thing.
As with any tool, there are good come-alongs, and cheap ones. What do you get
when you buy a tower?
I'll have to change the name of the thread. Everyone ready for TMM-433HD Part
I?
Best Regards,
Joe Spinosa
KF6CWX
Concord, CA
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: K7LXC@contesting.com
Sponsored by Akorn Access, Inc & KM9P
|