The Fascinating Anatomy of Radio Towers

I am a former ROHN engineer and have designed guyed towers up to 1000’. The guyed tower is the most complicated structure I know of. To analyze a guyed tower, you first have to analyze it for the gravity loads and the guy loads. These gravity loads shorten the tower and slack the guys. Then you have to take those results and apply the wind and/or ice loads. This analysis is done with custom software. We once had GT Strudl come and interview us on how we modeled the guy wires. Guy wires creep as loads are applied and the guys do not return to their original length when unloaded.

All extremely interesting and informative. During the 1980s I worked at a TV station, and I knew the engineers. Some of what you covered, I already knew from being around them. One night during storm season, our local power grid took a hit and knocked out the power for the lights on the tower. The chief engineer was there because it was a pretty bad storm, and he notified the FAA immediately. Tower height was (still is) 1,602 ft. Things were resolved with no incidents after it was over. They took me up the tower in the small elevator one time, I wish I'd had my camera with me. Elevator topped out at 1,492 ft. Later, they showed me a complete diagram of the tower with everything mounted on it; station equipment, lights, color banding lengths, other companies' lights...literally everything. I had no idea. I was impressed. Towers never look as big in size from a distance as they really are. Triangle shaped with a 8 or 10 ft spread between the legs (it's been so many years) with a small two-man 'box' for the elevator in the middle. Now, as a licensed amateur radio operator (yes, I'm a ham), our towers are not nearly as massive or complex as broadcast towers, but there are similarities on a smaller scale. But even when we need to do tower work, the most important factor is SAFETY. Not only for the climber, but also for the ground crew. I will share this video to our local ham clubs' Facebook pages.

When I was growing up in the Detroit area in the 1960s, there was an FM station in Oak Park, WLDM (Lincoln Broadcasting), that very much had a homebrew feel to it. For example, when they started broadcasting in stereo, they bolted a couple of stereo faders to their mono broadcast console for the turntables. Advertisements were played on mono Ampex reel-to-reel tape decks, and the microphones were all mono. They had a freestanding tower; it looked kind of like the Eiffel Tower (and had no safety fence around it). To hoist stuff up the tower, they had a hook hanging from a big ball (probably a weight to make sure the hook came down easily when empty). The cable went up to a pulley at the top of the tower, down to a pulley anchored to the ground, and over to an old pickup truck that had had one of its rear wheels replaced with a large spool for the cable. I never saw the setup in use; I am really hoping that the did not hoist people that way. Eventually they got bought out by a large radio chain, who tore out all the homebrew stuff and replaced it with "best practices" engineering.

My buddy Patrick Griffith was an expert at all things radio. He wrote a book on all of this and AM radio towers. He knew every radio tower West of the Misssissippi. He was based in Denver and worked as a Firefighters/EMT. Miss that guy alot. RIP

Interesting. I wondered about grounding towers, as I've observed sparks upon disconnecting coaxial connector when it's windy, obviously static. I would imagine that one of those sticks would aquire quite a charge, setting RF aside! I would like to see a video on directional arrays, suppression to protect orher stations, and the like. I realize that might not be an easy subject to cover in one video... All the Best! 73 DE W8LV BILL

Having dealt with NOTAMs, they are easy to do but easy to overlook and/or forget.

Fascinating topic. Thank you

The Tower !!! The Tower !!! Rapunzel Rapunzel we're going to the tower !!!

I noticed Magnum Towers in Sacto is still in business. I built a number of TV stations with them in the 80's. Proper tall tower site operation takes a lot of management and money. Mt Sutro, was my favorite.

Cool. Thanks for sharing.

I recognize the two towers at the beginning of the video. They are 20ish miles north northwest of Denver International Airport. Towers can actually be difficult to see from the air, they can blend in with the ground under certain lighting conditions.

I remember watching a movie from a couple of years back called Fall about two women who climb a 2000' broadcast tower and get stranded on top of it. Stuff of nightmares.

Interesting. Thanks

And then there are the ham radio towers.

When I was in electronics school back in the 80's I learned that TV broadcast was done through a port-hole from a tube. I also learned that CB radios don't have much power on their antenna when under broadcast but no voice. Start speaking and the wave peaks around 400V. That'll brighten your day!

Damn, your audio is great. Thank you.

Worked at an electric company and it was frustrating that the orange red marking paint would fade and need repainting every 10 years. Bad enough to do it once but worse over and over. There was a color chart to see if it had faded.

Very interesting. Very well presented.

@15:28 ...are these ground balls also known as Corona balls....I'm waiting for Alex Baldwin to tell us about his "Schwedde Balls" from SNL

Wow 8 hundred thousand feet tower. That's huge. Thanks for the great video tho. I don't know why but towers that are higher than a certain amount scare me. I can be mikes away and just looking at them they freak me out