Subject: Re: Tower extension & Anemometer equipment
From: Scott Hewett (hewett@jps.net)
Date: Sun Aug 15 1999 - 03:57:58 CDT
Let me know where the mast is and I'll drive by. I'm definately in favor of
un-guyed designs. I'll be cruising through Rio tomorrow AM and see if I
can't spot it even before I get a reply from you.
S
Allucquere Rosanne Stone wrote:
> Hey Scott, hang on a sec. We saw something this afternoon that might
> throw a whole new light on how to do this mast thang.
>
> We were cruising down in Rio del Mar observing how the Rich People live
> when we encountered a most interesting mast. It stopped us in our
> tracks -- Cynbe whipped the car around so I could examine it closely.
> This thing was roughly fifty feet tall (Cynbe said sixty) and completely
> unguyed. As near as I could tell, it was made of plain iron water pipe
> in ten-foot sections of decreasing diameter, connected together with
> reducing nipples. The bottom eight or ten feet were braced to the
> corner of the one-story house using big U-clamps, so maybe 40 (Cynbe
> swears 50) feet extended above the structure. There was an old
> groundplane antenna at the top, missing a few elements, which I think
> would present at least as much wind loading as our anemometer, and also
> a pulley and rope up there, maybe for a flag. The whole thing had been
> painted some time in the past and looked as if it had been there for
> years. The house itself was right on the beach, so this mast has likely
> withstood its share of high winds.
>
> My obvious question is: If these folx can put up an iron pipe mast that
> high without guy wires, why can't we? It'd involve rethinking what the
> mast was made of and where it sat on the roof, since ten feet or so of
> it would have to snuggle against the house. And it'd likely be
> challenging to erect something that heavy without support wires. But it
> would seem that such a mast would be much less visually obtrusive. I
> know, I've answered any questions about the visual impact of guy wires
> by saying it's no problem or I didn't care, but maybe I do, and just
> haven't noticed that I do. Which would explain why I found this unguyed
> mast so interesting.
>
> Anyway, here's a thought: Would you be interested in eyeballing the
> object itself and giving your opinion about whether the idea is
> transferable to our place?
>
> Still thinking,
> S
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