"A little to the left -- no, my left, keep going, keep going. Perfect!"
Rilly?
The arrangement is called a "candelabra," because normally it has two or three antennas at the top. They even make money by renting out the extra vertical real-estate. Too bad these guys met up with a little slump in the market.I'm told there are counterweights on the other two corners, btw. Whew!
Update: For scale, you're looking at the top, um, call it a third of a 1000-foot tower; that mast is in the 150' - 200' region and there is quite a view from it.
Sometimes that stuff is a little counter-intuitive. I once had an interesting evening involving a 2 meter handheld, an RS232 plug/cable, and a few coat hangers. What worked was not what was planned.
ReplyDeleteThey are planning for the future! ... Or something.
ReplyDeleteUsually they use a big pipe as a counterweight, don't they?
ReplyDeleteUsing a pipe not only balances the weight but also the wind and ice loads...
Generally, total windload counts more than the (relatively minor) imbalance across a platform, so compact, heavy counterweights are typical -- however, it's not unusual to see empty pole sections doing some of the counterweight work at the corners, since they suit FM and some types of TV antennas.
ReplyDeleteThis one was intended to serve TV broadcasters on the platform top, using "top mount" type antennas, so they left 'em empty.
It was a good deal for the only station on it, a perennially cash-strapped UHF: the tower owner built it on spec, on their land, and gave them free occupancy in return for the right to put any other station (or whatever, from paging to cellphone to...?) on the tower. And the TV station does nothing except maybe check that the lights come on.
When that thing went up (about a mile away from home), I remember hoping somebody was going to stick a WiMax antenna on it and sell broadband wireless to folks like me who were stuck with Comcast HSI because AT&T wouldn't hook us up to their U-Verse VRADs just down the block.
ReplyDeleteI should note in passing that AT&T still refuses to hook us up to their U-Verse VRADs just down the block...but I don't care anymore because (knock on wood) Comcast has been nearly flawless for several years, and from what I've heard about U-Verse, I'd just be madder than a wet hen at them most of the time. :)
ReplyDeleteStrange how many people who more commonly identify by call than name are also gun cranks.
ReplyDeleteStranger
Okay, I may have had a minor heart attack just looking at that video.
ReplyDeleteYou hire out plumbing; I hire out anything above eight feet.