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Tower Lights Former WBAP Tower Out?

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dfwrunner2

I'm not sure of the rules for tower illumination, but did not see any lights on the broadcast hill/Barnett St. main tower as I drove by this evening in the storm. Pretty sure they weren't obscured by clouds. Someone might have a look. All the other similar towers I could see did have lights.
 
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I guess it's ok. It seems strange that all of the shorter towers around it are lighted during the day but the tallest tower is not. Not good on heavy overcast or foggy/rainy days. The red/white color scheme is ineffective.
 
Four tower array for a site in Akron, OH. Within a stones throw of the local municipal airport. Out of 4 towers, only the tallest one is illuminated. If you're flying and you gotta look UP to see the tower light, you're gonna have a big problem shortly.
 
I had to deal with the FAA back in the 1990's. If your honest and report a tower light out ASAP. They will issue a "notice" and you are covered. I contacted a tower climber outfit that day and they were 2 months behind. I called the FAA and the gentleman said not to worry just document everything and inform them when the tower lights were working.
 
Another possibility, if the site is remotely controlled, there should be an alarm for the tower lights. This might have failed. Email or call the station, sometimes stuff happens.
 
Very often the antennas of various stations [TV, radio, etc:] are located on a tower that is owned by a company leasing it out so it'd probably be up to the station [if someone reports it to them] to let the tower owner know. I know of one right now that the top light and third one down is incredibly dim compared to the rest of the lights and it's been that way for months. I assume they're waiting for better weather to climb up and either fix the lights or just figured "Hey, it's glowing enough for us" and not gonna bother. I know of another tower owned by a TV station that all the lights were out except for two maybe half-power lights on the tower. I'm assuming it was some power loss or other issue and the two lights on were "emergency" lights. It was fixed about a week later. I'm assuming that the FCC/FAA has some sort of standards for how bright the lights have to be. And a non-radio/TV tower [electric utility owned] that switched to those god-awful flashing white strobe lights at night. Those things were so bright that they illuminated the left half of a drive-in theater's screen that was 3/4's of a mile away. Holy hell must have been raised by the residents that lived closer to it because a month later it was back to just the slowly fading in/out of the traditional red lights.
 
If you are using "white" strobes on an unpainted tower at sunset the system should automatically reduce power. I forget the exact amount 50 or more percent?(it's been over 30 years). There are two factors: tower height* and distance from the end of a runway. I have seen tower lights questions on insurance applications too.

* I believe there it use to be 200 foot (or more) required tower lighting.
 
secondchoice said:
If you are using "white" strobes on an unpainted tower at sunset the system should automatically reduce power. I forget the exact amount 50 or more percent?(it's been over 30 years). There are two factors: tower height* and distance from the end of a runway. I have seen tower lights questions on insurance applications too.

* I believe there it use to be 200 foot (or more) required tower lighting.
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They have red lights in daytime [now all the time since they switched back] I'm not using white strobes on anything and I can guarantee it wasn't reduced power. If it was and they put it on full power people would be getting suntans/radiation burns/clothing bursting into flames INSIDE their house. It had to be people that live relatively close to it that had to be bitching. I mean, 3 quarters of a mile [might even be a mile away] and it's washing out half the theater screen everytime it strobed. And like I said, it went back to all red about 3-4 weeks after they started using the strobe.
 
Looks like the city recently bought the property where the towers (at least two of the 3) are located to add the land to the nature preserve. Maybe they have other plans ...:eek: It does look like there is a carve out for the road leading to the tower equipment buildings, but the purchase area seems to split the tower area (fenced area) in two. Trying to get more info.
 
Yabadabado1 said:
They have red lights in daytime [now all the time since they switched back] I'm not using white strobes on anything and I can guarantee it wasn't reduced power. If it was and they put it on full power people would be getting suntans/radiation burns/clothing bursting into flames INSIDE their house. It had to be people that live relatively close to it that had to be bitching. I mean, 3 quarters of a mile [might even be a mile away] and it's washing out half the theater screen everytime it strobed. And like I said, it went back to all red about 3-4 weeks after they started using the strobe.
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I know a cell sight a couple of miles from my Dad's house started getting complaints with white strobs. When the crew was replacing an antenna they managed to cut the fed to the light. When they fixed it they tested it in a manual mode and left. A neighbor (friend of my Dad) called the number on the fence at the site. Next morning a tech from the cell company stopped by his house and said the crew forgot to switch the strobe system out of the test mode. Problem solved.

Most all white strobe systems have a daylight (super bright) and a dimmer night time mode. Read the instructions on where and what direction to place the daylight sensor. Except the initial tower climb bill these systems usually pay for them self's quickly.

I don't know the particular system in question that was making the neighbors mad and messing up the drive in, but the white could have been temporary. It all depends on what they filed with the FAA. Usually an unpainted tower really close to a runway will have white daytime and white (dimmed at night) or it switches to red at night. If the FFA requires red lights on during the day on a painted tower you are really really close to an airport or it is a really really tall tower or both.

If they are still using the old incandescent bulbs tack on an extra couple of hundred dollars a month to the power bill.
 
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