KPLO Pierre, SD tower collapses

[Mr Tony]

Dang...not good to see a tower collapse under an ice storm

The KPLO-TV/6 (Reliance-Pierre, RF 13) tower has collapsed after a guy wire snapped due to ice buildup. KELOLAND reports the 712-foot tower crumpled after the guy wire broke. Then, the top 300 feet tipped over, snapping a power line. There were no reports of injuries. FCC records indicate the tower was built in 1957. KPLO is owned by Young Broadcasting and is a satellite of KELO-TV/11 (Sioux Falls), carrying CBS and My Network TV programming. The station says it hasn't determined how long KPLO-TV will be off the air, but most cable systems are still carrying the station, and satellite customers receive KELO-TV

KELOLAND.com | Sioux Falls News & Weather, South Dakota News & Weather, Minnesota and Iowa News

 

[Splicer]

Damn. That must have been a sight to see; if anyone got to see it. But towers aren't forever & 53 years certainly seems like a good run.

 

[Mr Tony]

looks like ANOTHER tower collapsed

Ice has fallen another broadcast tower in South Dakota. This time, it's a 820-foot tower near South Shore that was home to KSDR-FM/92.9 (Watertown), KIXX/96.1 (Watertown), and KKSD/104.3 (Milbank-Watertown). All are 100kW stations owned by Three Eagles Broadcasting, though the tower is owned by a separate company. The collapse comes just days after the KPLO-TV/FM tower near Reliance, SD collapsed. There were no injuries reported in either collapse. It's not yet clear when any of the stations will return to the air.

 

[Jim5506]

More cable sabotage of OTA.

 

[Mr Tony]

The 2nd post was radio stations

but here along the ND/SD/MN border they have had ice for 3 days now

 

[boba]

Water weighs 8 LBS. per gallon so how much extra weight are these towers supporting? 800 ft. tower has a lot of surface area plus all the guy wires.

 

[TV Junkie 12]

Water weighs 8 LBS. per gallon so how much extra weight are these towers supporting? 800 ft. tower has a lot of surface area plus all the guy wires.

It's not only the weight on the tower itself but on the antenna. Many FM antennas have multiple bays on one side of the tower and ice will build up on each one. An FM station I do engineering work for lost the top 80 feet of the 500 foot tower in an ice storm last year due to the weight on the antenna but was able to be repaired.

 

[Tower Guy]

Water weighs 8 LBS. per gallon so how much extra weight are these towers supporting? 800 ft. tower has a lot of surface area plus all the guy wires.

You're right, it's the guy wires that can't handle the ice.

I've seen a tower collapse that had 4" of radial ice on the guy wire. (That's 8" in diameter.) The weight of the ice on one guy wire was about 8000 lbs. The tension on the guy wire amplifies the weight of the ice. If the tension factor was 10:1, the pull on the guy wire would have been 80,000 lbs. The guy wire was 3/4" bridge strand with a rating of 79,000 lbs. It failed with no wind!

The cable itself didn't break, but the cable clamps (Crosby clips) allowed the cable to slide through. In this case the guy wire was treated with grease to prevent rust.

Note to tower owners; if your tower has cable clamps on the guy wires, use paint instead of grease to prevent rust.

 

[Mr Tony]

some pics of the radio towers that collapsed

and this one is pretty cool. "New 102" (KQNU/102.3 Onawa-Sioux City) was knocked off the air by the weekend storm. They posted a youtube clip of going to the transmitter
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gYd8m22nhs"]YouTube- Why we are off the air.[/ame]

 

[JB Antennaman]

There was a tower mentioned in a article by Scott Flybush a month or so ago in one of his transmitter articles about a tower that had a lean to it. When the technicians went to remove the lean, the tower fell down.

The tallest transmitter tower in the world fell back in 1991 - the Warsaw Radio Mast. [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_masts_and_towers"]Radio masts and towers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:Hillmorton_radio_masts.jpg" class="image"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/98/Hillmorton_radio_masts.jpg/220px-Hillmorton_radio_masts.jpg"@@AMEPARAM@@en/thumb/9/98/Hillmorton_radio_masts.jpg/220px-Hillmorton_radio_masts.jpg[/ame]

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