Video of Storm Damage

[davideduardo]

Storm Snaps Tower in Half​

Alpha Media is working to get 4 Iowa stations back on the air when a serious storm swept through the Mason City area. As you can see from this picture the tower snapped and fell onto to the radio station building.

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"Fair Use" extract from Radio Ink. Click to view a video of the storm damage.

This is an example of how the most redundant radio installations have points of vulnerability.

 

[ZantennaG1]

I wonder how those Alabama storms turned out last night? Hopefully everyone in both Iowa and the Southeast are doing okay

 

[Will_H_69_9]

yeah, it's gonna be several days before they can get back on the air with a new STL tower. how long does it normally take for a new STL to be build and broadcasting to the main broadcast tower is restored.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

yeah, it's gonna be several days before they can get back on the air with a new STL tower. how long does it normally take for a new STL to be build and broadcasting to the main broadcast tower is restored.

It depends a lot on how much redundancy the station built. Many places I've worked have some kind of emergency studio at the tower, so the worst case downtime would be however long it took for someone to drive to the tower and activate it.

I would expect a couple weeks to build a new STL tower - assuming it is a standard size and there is one in stock. If someone has to custom fabricate a tower, it could be a few months.

 

[davideduardo]

I would expect a couple weeks to build a new STL tower - assuming it is a standard size and there is one in stock. If someone has to custom fabricate a tower, it could be a few months.

Depends. If there is a clear path to the transmitters, stock tower sections can be bought and, using the guy anchors and base, erected in a few hours.

If the STL antennae can still be used or reasonably straigntened out, they would just need to get an emergency order of coax and fittings. If they get an outside tower crew, fast shipping and bring in engineers from other markets, they could be back up in 24 to 36 hours.

STL towers are generally not a lot different than the towers police and utilities use and even ones hams employ. They are ready made in sections. Even if they need to replace the temporary tower later, they can be back on fast.