came home from work today, Tower down.

[ke7trp]

As I drove closer to home, I started seeing lots of trees laying down in the streets.  My heart sank.  I pulled into the Drive and for the first time in 10 years, Did not see the tower.

Its a total loss.  The Tower snapped all three legs clean. All three Guy ropes where snapped. These where half inch diameter ropes.  The antenna was an old Imax 2000 That I retuned for 10 meters mid band. I worked many stations on that thing on 10, 12 and 15 meters including the Azores. The main purpose of this tower was to support the west leg of the zep. 

The fence is also destroyed.  I am told there was a micro burst that was right over the hood with winds in the 100 mph range.  So strong that people could not walk or run for cover.

I called the insurance company and filed a claim on the roof, fence and tower.  I hope they cover it all.

C

[VK7ZL]

Just missed the dog too!

[w3jn]

Aw man, that really sucks Clark.

[steve_qix]

Wow !!!!!  That's a real bad scene!

What were the ropes made of?  I had a similar situation when I lived in Groton (MA).  A tornado (yes, we get a lot of them here in N.E.!) came through and snapped off a lot of trees at about the 50 foot level.

But, a 60 foot tower I had up - STAYED up because the ROPE guys kept it up there despite the raging winds.  The house sustained wind damage.

On this particular tower, the ropes came away at about a 45 degree angle, and there were 3 ropes at the top only.  The tower was not anchored to the ground except for just sitting there.  The guy ropes were the only things keeping it up.

The ropes were 1/2 inch polyethylene (NOT polypropylene) and were not new.  Polyethylene is very strong rope, and is significantly resistant to UV (I have some pieces around here that are LITERALLY 30 years old and are still perfect!).  Polyester is also quite UV resistant.

I'm just surprised that in your situation 1/2 inch ropes would break !  What do you think happened??  I would almost have expected the tower to break before the ropes.

[W2VW]

 The tower was not anchored to the ground except for just sitting there.  The guy ropes were the only things keeping it up.

That's most likely what saved it.

[KM1H]

The tower looks fine and so does most of the mast.

And the dog sure looks like it hadnt budged thru it all

[flintstone mop]

It is hard to protect anything from a mirco-burst.

Fred

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

SUX. I'm glad it didn't hit your house, as I'm sure you are too. But it still sucks.

[ke7trp]

The tower is toast. The bottom edge is crushed and wavy. I think I can use it at low hight to support a small vertical for 2m or maybe 6. 

All three tower legs are snapped off at the concrete.

I used three half inch poly UV ropes to guy it. They all snapped. This thing must have waving around like a straw going down a drain.

The wire antennas are all snapped. The 2 meter/440 cushcraft is also done.  Not one antenna survived.

To top all this off, Last night about 1am we had another micro burst hit the house.  This time the thunder blew the windows out on the south side of the property.  Then, for good measure, The storm slammed golf ball hail down which screwed up the lexus in the Drive.  The winds finished off the roof. There are tiles all over the property. 

There I was holding my ears in bed with a 70lb dog shaking next to me and a cat that would claw the hell out of me and screech when the thunder hit each time.. hahaha. 


The insurance guy is comming out any time now.  I guess I will show him the rest of the damage.  Knowing my luck,  They wont cover anything.

C

[steve_qix]

Wow, that is absolutely amazing weather !!!!!!!  Is this normal (don't know anything about the weather in your area!)?

I'm surprised the trees in the area aren't leveled or at least broken off.  I know around here, that sort of thing knocks trees over - but it's so rare that when it DOES come, the damage is usually quite significant.

I would guess the homeowner's policy would cover the losses - if it doesn't, what excuse could they give?? An act of God?

Good luck with all of it.  I'm not surprised the tower is unusable.  Falls such as that usually bend them up pretty well, and the structure is also weakened.  In professional radio, you cannot get insurance on a tower that's fallen over and then put back up.

[K1JJ]

Sorry to hear about the tower, Clark.

The insurance company will probably pay off since it is a well known incident with other damage in the neighborhood. Almost without fail, after an insurance payout, most guys build a new system bigger and much better than before. They are almost thankful for the event in hindsight.

I would start designing up a stronger system and do it by the book using a pin at the base and steel guy wires, using Rohn 45. There are many used towers around these days owned by old timers just looking to have them taken down for free.

Steve (and Dave) made a good point about his tower having the base free. (Though the base should have limited sway using a pin) I know many guys have their towers in concrete, but when stressed to breaking, the pin is far superior to let the tower move (rock) rather than snap. I actually had my first 150' Rohn 45 in concrete and went thru the trouble to jack it up, cut off the base  and install a new pier pin. (While the tower was standing)  Look up the Rohn Tower design manual on line and study it fpr ideas, if you haven't already.

Anyway, think positive and in six months you will have a system that is bullet-proof and can handle X3 the load you have now. (maybe even taller)

T

[ke7trp]

The adjuster just left.  They are going to take care of everything.  The fence, The roof, windows the tower, antennas and even skim the inside of the ceiling and replaster and paint. Water came in due to the roof ripping off and damaged my ceilings.

Now I have to find a company in phx that can put the tower up.  They said they would pay for full install if I got a quote from a legitimate company that can do the job correctly to avoid this falling again. Why do this myself when they prefer to have skilled tower installers do the job?

In PHX we have monsoon storms all summer long.  They are short storms with lots of rain. This was a micro burst type storm that hit the house twice.  I hear of this happening every year but never in my area of the valley. Its almost always up north or down south.

Thank god for insurance.  Now to sit down and rest for a bit.  I have been without rest, Worrying and or working to stop leaks for 24 hours.

C

[WA1GFZ]

if your insurance finds out it was a JS install they may not want to do it right.

[ke7trp]

Here we go....

JS install?  It survived 10 years of az storms.  Just not 11.

C

[steve_qix]

Sounds like you're all set with the insurance company!!!  That's good.  I always wonder why I pay that $1300/year homeowner's insurance bill year after year, but when you hear of something like this happening, it definitely puts a different light on things.

[k4kyv]

 The tower was not anchored to the ground except for just sitting there.  The guy ropes were the only things keeping it up.

That's most likely what saved it.

It is extremely poor design to set a fixed (as opposed to crank-up or tilt-over) guyed tower in concrete.  I can't understand why most hams do it that way. I call it the "Hammy Hambone" method. The base plate/pier pin  method is a much better idea, and a lot less work to erect. No having to make absolutely sure the bottom section is plumb before dumping the concrete, and hoping the concrete doesn't somehow knock it off plumb when it fills the hole. And you don't lose the height of the bottom section that is buried in concrete. I am aware that hams have a reputation for being "cheap" (penny wise and pound foolish), but a base plate and  pier pin do not cost that much.  All towers sway and twist in the wind, and the base section rigidly set in concrete is a disaster waiting to happen.

Better still, if you are using the tower as a vertical, use a broadcast type base insulator, which is designed to act like a ball and socket joint.  A brand new one would be prohibitively expensive, but with many small Ma and Pa AM stations going dark these days, it isn't too difficult to find a used one that will fit a small tower.  I got mine back in 1980 from a BC station in Alabama.  Paid the owner $100 for it.  A few years ago I found a spare at a hamfest for $25, and the spare one was designed to fit my tower, so I wouldn't even need an adaptor plate for it.

Regarding that 100 mph wind shear, the Rohn book indicated that at this QTH, design for 85 mph winds would be sufficient.  For probably less than 50 extra bucks (a little additional concrete in the guy anchor piers and a couple of pieces of slightly heavier duty hardware) I was able to design mine for 125 mph...  Better to have it and not need it, than to need in and not have it.

[WA1GFZ]

That $1300 a year pays for the excuse makers.

[KA1ZGC]

Sorry to hear about the tower, Clark. Glad nobody was injured or killed.

if your insurance finds out it was a JS install they may not want to do it right.

Here we go....

JS install?  It survived 10 years of az storms.  Just not 11.

What Frank is trying to say (in his own touchy-feely kinda way) is that no insurance company would ever insure a tower that was guyed with rope, and he's right about that. There are industry standards for tower construction, and none of them consider rope to be a viable guying system. These things have to take thousands of pounds of load just sitting there, nevermind when a wind storm passes through. You've been very fortunate for at least 9-1/2 years. Considering that nobody was hurt or killed, you're even luckier than you might feel right now.

So now is your opportunity to do it properly and not have to pay for it yourself. Get a tapered base and a pier pin as others have stated, pour a real base, put down some real guy anchors, and use real guy cables.

Do those simple things, and your tower will outlive almost everyone on this board. As long as your insurer is covering it, you no longer have any reason not to.

I know you probably don't want to hear any of this right now, but those are the facts.

Good luck with it, and the rest of your house repairs.

[W1IA]

WOW...glad no one got hurt Clark!
Most likely the insurance will square you away....GL

Brent

[k4kyv]

I can't bad-mouth insurance companies.  When my daughter had her accident, our automobile carrier immediately paid out the full limit, without hedging, based on our "uninsured motorist" coverage.  When I didn't feel safe climbing onto a difficult part of  my roof to fix a few shingles myself and called our home-owners insurance company, they paid me to replace the entire asphalt shingle roof. I upped the ante and contributed about an equal amount out of my own pocket, and had a metal roof put on instead.  Not a single leak since. Shingle roofs are a PITA and CONSTANTLY need maintenance.  But I could not have afforded the new metal one all on my own.

[K1JJ]

  When I didn't feel safe climbing onto a difficult part of  my roof to fix a few shingles myself and called our home-owners insurance company, they paid me to replace the entire asphalt shingle roof.

  I don't get it. Why would they pay you to do repairs? Were they THAT concerned about their liability if it fell?

Normally they do a house inspection every year here. One time they didn't like the shingles and were going to cancel the policy unless we got them repaired. We had to pay the full amount for repairs, of course, to get the policy renewed.

Looks like you caught them with their pants down on a policy that had a lot of time left to go, no?

T

[ke7trp]

No ham tower would have taken this micro burst.  You guys can talk about shotty installs all you want. The tower was very solid and is a free standing tower. Guy ropes are not required on this model at this level. We put them up as an added measure of safety.  If you look at the picture again, You will notice this is not Rohn tower. Its much, much stronger. It has full size supports and not bent zig zag wires supports. Cyclic 100 mph winds going in each direction is just something a tower like this cannot take.  End of story.

The insurance company so far has been good to me. I have paid them between $1000 and $1300 a year every year and never made a claim.  This was considered a disaster and claim counts are in the thousands in my area. THe hood is a flury of activity. I have been hearing chain saws all day long. Down the street is a huge Tree that was about 4ft across at the trunk, snapped like a twig. My property has pine trees and they somehow, Survived. Probably due to the huge root systems.

As of right now, Winds are up and moving the trees around and blowing crap around the yard. I really hope we dont have another storm tonight. I dont think the roof will take it.

I am now trying to figure out a way to get at least a wire up after the weather calms down. Its going to be months before any kind of work will be done. Maybe I can string a wire across the yard so I can at least enjoy some radio time.

[KM1H]

Dont be surprised if you get a cancellation notice or your rates go way up, its the current industry scam.

I also agree on the pier pin, used them on the 90 and 120' Rohn 25 at the old place and the 180' 45G here where Im wide open in all directions and the winds sweep up the hill and start blasting the tower at the 120' level along with the straight on winds. Its why I could never keep a KLM 4el 40 together more than 18 months and scrapped the idea of the 3 el 80 KLM on a BC tower.

[K1JJ]

There was a microburst here last July. I never saw anything like it. It sounded like a freight train and the rain was horizontal.  It took down a number of huge oak trees about 250' from the house that were at least 100 years old. It was at least 90 mph for 20 seconds or so. That's when the shingles on the roof here went missing and the insurance company demanded they be replaced or no renewal.

That same day of the microburst there was a tornado a few towns over. Frank, remember Wethersfield last year?

FWIW, my antennas themselves and towers here are all designed to handle 130 mph+, but with the various loads I have on the towers now, it's less. The full-size triple 40M Yagi stack certainly is a load on the 190'er self-supporter.


Anyway, Clark, you'll be getting a nice check and it's most ham's dream to be able to design up a new system and have it professionally installed. Good luck.

T

[k4kyv]

 I don't get it. Why would they pay you to do repairs? Were they THAT concerned about their liability if it fell?

Normally they do a house inspection every year here. One time they didn't like the shingles and were going to cancel the policy unless we got them repaired. We had to pay the full amount for repairs, of course, to get the policy renewed.

Looks like you caught them with their pants down on a policy that had a lot of time left to go, no?

T

No, I usually just did the repairs myself rather than going to the hassle of contacting the insurance co., having them do an appraisal, then finding a contractor to do the repairs, waiting for  the check from  the insurance co., then paying the contractor.  It was always easier to climb up and re-nail a couple of shingles myself.  Usually a 30-minute job. I'd spend at least that much time on the phone dealing with roofers and insurance agents.

When I decided that the blown off shingles were not in a safely accessible place, I contacted the insurance company.  The guy looked over the roof, and said, "we are going to put you on a new roof".  Maybe the fact that they hadn't had to fix any shingles  for years had something to do with it.  I was flabbergasted, but didn't ask too many questions; I gather he thought the roof was getting in bad enough shape that it would cost them more to repeatedly pay for small repairs than to re-do the whole thing once and for all.  Maybe the adjuster had just had a good bedtime experience with his wife that night.  For whatever reason, about a week later, they  sent me a check for a re-roofing job according to their appraisal, based on what they consider the going price.  It was pretty close to the estimate I got from the roofing company.  The metal roof was approximately  double the cost of the asphalt shingle job.

The way my insurance company works, They do an appraisal, send me a check for "fair market value for the job", and it's up to me to find someone to do the work for what they decide to pay.  I could have pocketed the money and JS'ed the roof job myself, and probably no-one would have ever known, at least until the next wind storm. But this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get the metal roof I had always wanted.