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San Francisco's Big Antenna - Sutro Tower

Saltwater, where is that tower?

I guess I'm somewhat of an antenna guy but I work with an x-broadcast engineer who used to climb the big ones out on the Great Plains - HE is an antenna guy. He's told me some great stories - my favorite: he accidentally left a pair of aluminum framed glasses on a lower platform and; while he was working near the top, a bolt of lightning hit the tower somewhere beneath him. When he went back to retrieve his glasses, they were welded to the tower! He even gets calendars with photos of the big towers!

We've got some interesting ones scattered around Washington, D.C. I read something about Spartanmanor's towers on a website about Cold War history but I can't seem to locate it. I've always been intrigued by the Cold War era troposcatter antennas scattered on mountaintops across this region. They are huge, nuclear blast hardened blocks of concrete with parabolic reflectors focused DOWN toward the ground. Some are still operational and shrouded in mystery but here is a decommissioned one that I believe was for sale at some point and a realtor was able to photograph inside:

http://coldwar-c4i.net/ATT_Project/Buckingham/index.html
 
The first one is a 1000 ft in decauter illinois. (CTN) It is a very solid tower, cant remember what brand it is off the top of my head, but it will come to me.

Second is a 400 ft in ottumwa iowa, looking out into an alfafa field.

third is a 900 ft in quincy illinois, WTJR channel 16. Im pretty sure its a rohn...

As far as the lightning hittin the tower, never seen or had that happen, ive seen it hit towers. Ive also seen on am towers, the glass ball that it sat on collapsed and the tower shorted out. They have to jack the whole tower back up and put it on a new insulater. Theres more stories if your intrested i could embelish.

Im pretty sure this is the second tallest tower in the world, something like 2060 ft?
Be sure to hit the positive on the magnifying glass. Pretty in depth look at it!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Kxjb_tv_mast_pano.jpg
 
I worked for a TV station in San Francisco for a couple of years and got to go up in the tower- not the base, but up the angled elevator in the legs. Had to wear a lead suit for the trip. Pretty cool.
 
If I had to climb them damthings for a living, that would be the year all the hornets 'n' waspers got together & decided to build on Antennas exclusively...
 
Oh they build on em, they love the heat of that sun just baking it. They lay all over it, just brush em out of the way youll be fine!
 
Relamping, Reguy, Replum, General maintenance. Erect, tear down, move. you name it! No chute, wouldnt open in time anyway! I havent been working with towers for about a year now, but its a wild job. You forget to hook off while your working. Your mind goes elsewhere....
 
I was really impressed with the density of equipment up on Mount Wilson when I was there in the mid 90's... I always wondered just how powerful the RF fields were, up there...

But little else can compare to that SF tower....

All they do around here is stick them on top of the tallest buildings like the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center...


If it's tower sites you are interested in check out Scott's site www.fybush.com
 
In the early 80's I lived in Newton,Mass., on top of a small hill with a spectacular view of the famous Route 128 antenna farm. The RF in the area was so strong my speakers played music even when the system was turned off!
 
I used to carpool with an electrician who moonlighted as a tower guy.

Most religous guy I ever met. Before he'd start the car, he'd pray, sincerely.
 
BIG sticks

Having worked in Fargo back in the 70s, I'm quite familiar with those BIG sticks. KXJB and KTHI (now KVLY) built them approximately halfway between Fargo and Grand Forks...near Blanchard, ND a few miles west of I-29. A Guard helicopter clipped a guy on KTHI's and down she came. Spoke with an engineer who was on duty the night it happened...he heard a strange, deep groaning sound and looked out the transmitter building door and looked up to see red lights waving back and forth. Ran back into the building and hid under a desk. Seemed like 15 minutes to him of groaning, crashing steel. When it was over he was able to pick his way through the mess and survey the carnage. They're designed to collapse into a big pile rather than "tip over". If you ever visit a tall tower site, you'll also note the construction of the transmitter building...THICK reinforced concrete roof with either a drive-in garage for maintenance vehicles or a reinforced overhang. You'll also note the inverted-v shaped steel guard over the run for the coax/waveguide/etc running from the building to the base. The reason for this? ICE. The big sticks are designed to withstand hurricane-force winds...but, when they ice up...all bets are off. You DO NOT want to be anywhere near a tall tower when it starts to shed its load of ice...HUGE chunks come plummeting down and would make mincemeat of your car. A number of tall towers have come down when they could either no longer withstand the sheer weight of the ice or the ice buildup caused them to fail due to excessive wind load. Current technology would allow construction of towers to at least 3,000'...but the FAA won't allow it due to the hazard to air navigation.

I have the UTMOST respect for "tower guys". They, along with the guys who work on 500kV power lines earn every dime they make.

Addendum: Something was nagging at my feeble mind...then it hit me: It was KXJB's...not KTHI's that went down...TWICE! First time was the copter incident in 1968, then it succumbed to the ice/wind combo in '97. Rebuilt both times, of course.
 
saltwater said:
Oh they build on em, they love the heat of that sun just baking it. They lay all over it, just brush em out of the way youll be fine!
Click to expand...

Somehow or another, just "brushing off" a beachball sized Hornet's Nest w/up to 1000 angry hornets 750' or so up in the air just doesn't sound like Much Fun...
 
I was working in San Fran. when they were constructing the Sutro tower. Lots of angry citizens could not believe they approved and built such a large visual "eye sore". Of course that is subjective and I thought it was a pretty amazing structure.

I seem to recall reading something about it's design. Being free standing (not guyed wired) and in earthquake country, there was a cement foundation poured underground that made the center of gravity of the whole structure be below ground level !!!

Lefty
 
Hi,

As a broadcast engineer I have only the highest of respect for Tower repairmen and riggers. That is the one part I must farm out due to physical challenge. Yes, you don't want to be around when ice falls off of a tower. It isn't pretty on your crushed car. Neither do you wish to shake up that beachball sized hornet's nest or deal with Mr. Timber Rattlesnake. Both of which are common residents at broadcast sites. Both have a tendency to get in the way of your work.
 
We had a beautiful old water tower at the place I used to work-4 tapered legs up to a "tin hat". I was FORBIDDEN to even get close to it when I was a kid. Well, one day when I was 11, 12, thereabouts, I says, "Phooey on 'em ! I'm gonna climb the damthing !" Well, I start up, & could see at least one, possibly 2 currently-in-use hornet nests, & several pie-plate sized wasper nests... Decided I did not need to climb that water tower that badly....
 
One of the most interesting things I've seen was a thing on Discovery Channel about the guys doing maintenance on the Empire State Building's antenna tower. #1...the TV stations had to sign off to allow the work to be done...so the climb was done between midnight and 5AM. Elevator to the top of the building, then IIRC a ladder to the top of the "spire". Then, out a trapdoor and up the tower they went...lugging 75-100# of gear along with their heavy coveralls. The worst part was at about the 1350' level...when they had to unclip and climb up and over an ice barrier made of steel mesh sticking out about 2' around the tower. Then they could finish the climb to 1465'. Of course, they had to climb back down, go around the barrier, etc. Fascinating.
 
Yeah, its hard work, but rewarrding. I dont know how to dual quote a post but everything in post 32 that electrojohn says is well true. You dont want to be around them in winter! Ive seen on the 1000 footers, the guys would start galloping. When Its cold out, and the sun starts shining, the guys will start galloping, it can bring a tower down(everything has its resonate freq.). Ive dropped quite a few towers by tightening up the opposit two anchors and taking a concrete saw, and cut the anchor off... Just imagine it if you can. did that to some 300 ft'ers, and its a sight. moaning groaning, then sound like a jet going bye( the wind rushing thru the tower), then it all lays on the ground. They are designed to fold up on themselves on the way down. The self supportings are built on a floating pad. never seen one fall or collapse, but have seen some rickidy ones about 50-75 years old that were in horrible shape.. you wont get me up those, only to rig it for when you call a crane in to pic it and lay it down. Water towers are water towers, bout all you can do is mount stuff on top, or the catwalk. im rambling anywho.... give or take a letter on my spelling.
 

From http://gallery.bostonradio.org/2004-05/pv/100-01889-med.html
Provin Mountain, Agawam, MA: "Mike drove us up to WWLP's transmitter site (which is also the former location of their studios) on Provin Mountain in Agawam. From the back side of the building we can look up and see a whole bunch of towers, but two obviously stand out. The stubby one on the left is the original channel 22 tower, dating back to when WWLP first moved from channel 61. The one on the right is the current home of WWLP, its digital signal on channel 11, WAQY (102.1 Springfield) and WPKX (97.9 Enfield)."
 
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