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http://www.modestoradiomuseum.org/wooden%20tower.html (http://www.modestoradiomuseum.org/wooden%20tower.html)

Interesting.

Cool site, Mike. Amazing to see such an intricate structure still standing. Certainly on par with the Marconi towers at South Wellfleet and elsewhere, though far more interesting.

You coming to FrostFest?

I wonder what my neighbors would say ifn I built one out of scrap pallet wood?

Geezz.. 387', all wood! Self-supporting to boot.  The Germans are such great engineers.  Beautiful tower.

T

Wow!!

Pity the fool that has to paint water sealant on that thing!

Very pretty though. On another computer, I have some pix of a wooden tower from the 30s (IIRC). I will post those tomorrow.

That's a neat tower. I always marvel at giant wood structures, since I'm one of those folks that has trouble building anything out of wood except a fire. Metal's fine, I can do good with that, but not with wood. Probably due in part to the fact that I have better tools for metal than I do for wood.

The Modesto Radio Museum site brought back a lot of memories. I lived 80 miles east of Modesto for about 20 years and listened to KLOC, 920 AM almost from the day it went on the air. I knew quite a few of the folks mentioned on the museum site and it was a nice trip down memory lane.

ldb
K5WLF

I didn't follow the statement that they didn't use iron screws or nails because they would have absorbed RF, but use fasteners made of ore instead. What kind of ore?

I remember sometime back in the 80's they finally tore down the wooden roller coaster at the Nashville fairgrounds. Roger, N4IBF was given some of the wooden cross members from it that he was going to use for some house repair project.  The first one can be seen in photos dating back to 1927, but I believe it was rebuilt in 1965 after a fire had destroyed the original one.  I looked over the pieces; they had been fastened with nails, some of which were still in the boards and were rusty, and you could see wood rot that had set in around the nail holes. Hopefully they did use nuts and bolts on the heavier load-bearing timbers. Long before they dismantled it I had thought to myself no way would I ever get on that thing.  It was said to be creaky; that was supposed to be part of the thrill of riding it.  When it was torn down, it was reported that termite infestations were found.

There are wooden railway trestles still in use that carry freight trains every day. Like the trestles, it looks like the tower is preserved with creosote.  The creosote treated electric utility pole here at the house was put in service sometime in the 30s when electricity first came to the area.  A few years ago the power co. sent a team over the area to inspect all the older poles; ours was found to still be sound so they didn't replace it.

In recent decades they have stopped using creosote preservative on utility poles, supposedly because of some toxicity alleged to be associated with creosote.  Now, wooden poles are preserved with some kind of olive drab green stuff, probably copper naphthenate, and I would almost be willing to bet that it doesn't work as well.  I  wonder if the 20-year remaining life expectancy of the tower is because EU regulations (the same ones that have banned lead solder and incandescent lamp bulbs) now prohibit the preservative they used in the past.

I didn't see any no smoking signs on there.

Why pity?  Job security.  Get finished at the top and start from the bottom again

 ;D

Awesome structure.

Weren't Major Armstrongs towers wooden?  Maybe not as tall but wooden nonetheless.

You won't even have to break them apart. Just keep stacking them and strapping them together. Some guys at the appropriate levels and it's all good. It'll look like a giant Jenga game.

Local station here in Manchester, AM-610 WGIR (I think) used a wooden tower, until a hurricane leveled it, and they replaced it with the Blau-knox (which IMHO are the cat's meow for looks in Commercial ants).

Whatever the green stuff is, it smells like melting plastic and makes me sick to my stomach. They put some poles in around here and the morning air is heavy with the smell of the chemical.

Gotta be a mistranslation.

I suspect they meant "alloy" or else "brass"??

                 _-_-bear

 ;D TERMITE HAVEN ;D

I have a good friend at work that is Polish. He immigrate to the US in 1987. I asked him if he knew about this tower and his face lit up. Turns out that radio station and tower played a pivotal roll in Hitler's plan to invade Poland at the start of Germany's quest for European domination. More info here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliwice_Radio_Tower (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliwice_Radio_Tower)

Mike

Beautiful tower.

"The medium wave transmitter is no longer workable, because the final stage is missing."

Hmmm, maybe some ham is strapping on 160m over there in Poland with the finals?   ;D

Phil - AC0OB

Sorry for the necro. I just ran acorss the photo.

A ham, W9DNP built his own 100 foot wooden tower in 1935.

Hun, I need to climb the tower and drive all the nails back in after the big wind storm.

More here  http://www.radiostacjagliwicka.republika.pl/foldery/FoldeRAng.htm

Close-up photo: http://www.radiostacjagliwicka.republika.pl/index.htm

I wouldn't want to try building a tower with the crap that the lumber yards sell now days.         

I recall that he built that tower out of the lattice used behind the plaster in walls. It was made of some wood that was pretty tough.  The corners were some other species, and the whole thing was very well constructed.   I've looked at the lattice available in home cheapo... not on your life...

here are some better pictures of that tower.....


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Tower_Gliwice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Tower_Gliwice)

And here are some more wooden towers around the world


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lattice_tower#Wooden_lattice_towers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lattice_tower#Wooden_lattice_towers)

 ???  What is "necro"?  ???

I wonder if they have ice problems with that structure?

it's a term meaning to revive a thread... usually one that has not been posted to in a long while and there fore 'dead'.  Comes from the greek word for dead or death.