> So, what's left that would make the buried base preferable over a pier pin?
> Saving a few minutes of time when stacking the bottom couple of sections is
> hardly a reason in my book :
> 73 --- Jeff WN3A
One thing I forgot to mention. With the pier-pin solution you normally don't
have the problem of hollow-legged towers filling with water and the necessity
of drilling a weep hole in the legs or making sure drainage is sufficient. In
the case of the buried-in-concrete method, the bottom section would need to
extend below the concrete into a bed of gravel that you KNOW FOR SURE will
always have good drainage. Otherwise drilling a weep hole in each leg is a
necessity - something that may possibly weaken the tower structure. The
tapered base or flat base plate leaves the bolt-holes of hollow tube towers
above grade where they serve as weep-holes as well. When I put up my 25G in
1981, I paid about $90 for my tapered base section, approximately double the
price of a regular 10' 25G section. Looking in the Rohn catalogue to-day, a
regular 10' section costs about $100 but the tapered base section is over
$800!. The flat base plate is a lot cheaper. I don't know why they don't
make a short tapered base to add on to a regular section, but that would
probably be almost as expensive. The new company that took over Rohn charges
incredibly more than did the "old" Unarco-Rohn for certain items. I use the
tapered base section on mine to accommodate the base insulator, since the tower
also serves as a vertical tee for 160.
Don k4kyv
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