[SixClub] Now here's a tower and rotator (UPDATED)

[Chris Boone]

Trust me, PILOTS would be pleased...to heck with the FAA...(I'm a former
Capt in the CAP ;)

When they were having open meetings discussing the then new proposed 2000ft
tower SW of Houston in early 1980s, which became known as the Senior Road
tower....the one you can find on YouTube or other sites showing it falling
:(  -- the FAA expected  the pilots to totally complain about it and kill
the application.

One by one, pilots (professional and private) all said the same thing: "Heck
we can use it as a landmark for Hobby airport!!" Hobby WAS Houston's main
airport before IAH (Intercontinental) was built on the north side of
town...still a LOT of traffic in/out of Hobby (HOU) including SouthWest
Airlines....(they also fly out of IAH) and a ton of private traffic.

Needless to say, the FAA guys were dumbfounded and the tower was approved
(the replacement tower was built on the same ground pin! Has 9 FMs and had
KTXH 20 on it...but I think they moved to one of the newer sticks with their
digital)...there are now 8 of them (YES 8!!) puppies out there; two of them,
one owned by ABC O&O 13 and the other owned by FOX O&O 26 with PBS 8
sidemounted,  are about 100-200ft apart;  original plans called for a
catwalk between the two at the 1800ft level!!! But thankfully that thought
was finally given up!!! There was the short 1400ft DeWalt tower with its
75ft long per leg candelabra that held 2, 11 and 39 since the 60s...it was
recently dismantled...the 28/88 and 444.6 ham rptrs ( which ended up with
WR5AAA in the 70s) were on that tower in the 60s; the 28/88 was one of the
1st rptrs east of the Rockies.....(want to see a pic of the top candelabra??
Let me know..I have it and I have a shot looking straight down to the ground
from over the north edge 75ft out from the center!!...also you can QRZ
WR5AAA and see the pic but all ham and MARS rptrs were removed from the
tower over 5 years ago; if you look in the center, you can see the 2 story
metal bldg the  rptrs were in...I was up there in 1993 repairing 88 and
4.6...banged my head across a cross beam when I wasn't looking....I think my
head won though! ;)

> -----Original Message-----
> Not necessarily.  At first though it seems like a good idea, but in my
> case where I'm lined up with an approach, but nearly 5 miles out the FAA
> might not be too pleased at a new center line light showing up. They
> don't want any new lights showing up that are not in the records. OTOH
> it's not a bad idea to have flood lights pointed up at the antennas that
> can be turned on if there are any helicopters searching the area.  They
> were searching for an elderly "walk away" a few years back and the
> deputy sat on the corner and put the spotlights on the antennas and the
> helicopter was no where near as high as the top antennas.
> 
> 73
> 
> Roger (K8RI) 
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