Posted on 02/07/2024 3:46:49 PM PST by nickcarraway
How some people operate:
If you can, steal it.
If you can’t steal it, break it.
If you can’t break it, crap on it.
I guess they are no longer a heavy metal station.
The guy wires are primarily there for lateral stability in winds.
If you have winds of about 30+ mph, just cut all the guy wires on the side the wind is coming from. Down she goes!
The remaining guy wires will pull the tower away from you.
actually, i think you hit the nail on the head!
All the real copper is underground as radials, lots of them but the thieves don’t know how radio works....
Yea, that one looked a little more robust.
Yeah just saw a documentary about that...so interesting.
Sounds like demo-commies.
Last step is after you break it or make a mess of it, blame somebody else.
Yup. And by cutting the guy wires in a certain sequence the direction of fall could be controlled.
Even the cables for the guy wires could bring in some heavy bucks. But the size of the operation is such that would require heavy trucks, specialized equipment and know how. I don’t think a couple meth heads pulled this off.
There’s something hinkey going on. For some reason, I think the owner is in on it.
"Hello, that house you wanted demolished? Was that on Montrose or Melrose?"
(Quiet while the speaker listens to the other person.)
""Oh, really?"
Can't remember the product or the rest of the commercial, but that opening got you attention.
A lot of the power substations now have signs posted that the ground rods are steel, not copper due to the copper thieves.
People go on vacation for any more than a week and they return home to their AC units gutted.
Depending on the state, scrap yards are supposed to ask for and make copies of photo ID’s and or business licenses if turning in copper.
“Yup. And by cutting the guy wires in a certain sequence the direction of fall could be controlled.
Even the cables for the guy wires could bring in some heavy bucks. But the size of the operation is such that would require heavy trucks, specialized equipment and know how. I don’t think a couple meth heads pulled this off.”
nope ... a couple of meth heads couldn’t have done this ... weird thing though is scarp steel doesn’t bring in that much money ... doesn’t seem like a very big payoff considering use of the all the expensive heavy equipment, fuel, labor, etc.
Too bad is wasn’t an AM station. Those guys would have been fried.
You would need trucks, trailers and a lot of time to abscond with an entire radio tower. You would need more money in equipment than you will get from the scrap, not to mention every scrap yard in the state will be on the lookout for a junked tower.
Hey, to tell you this, but it was an AM radio station. The station in question had an FM and an AM. Side. The one the got destroyed was the AM station.
Sounds like the thieves knew what they were doing. Typically, the tower of an AM station is the antenna and is energized. You would see insulators on the guy wires if that is the case.
Steel? is not an expensive metal.
But even a small 200 ft. tower has transmission link on it. (Copper and Brass) Very expensive scrap.
Heliax or Rigid copper broadcast transmission line is VERY EXPENSIVE.
I know about RF.
A lot of criminal’s work very hard for little profit.
Your probably right. Stealing a radio tower is something I would never consider, even in the most dire circumstances.
If the price of scrap iron is nothing, then maybe the thief needed it as a radio tower some place.
Here is a new one for sale by Rohn. 200 ft, sale price $31,849.20 The Rohn tower is 16 3/4 inches on a side.
The towers have to be painted and maintained. This old one looked like it needed paint.
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