WBZ/Westinghouse/Springfield, MA

[Dale H. Cook]

At 11:28 AM 4/3/2008, Dan.Strassberg wrote:

>WBZ's towers in Hull are 185.5 degrees tall. If my math is correct,
>that comes out to 492' or almost exactly 500m.

The station's 2006 renewal app includes an RF hazard exhibit giving 
the towers' height as 500'. Remember that the site was constructed to 
operate on 990 kHz.

> From the photo, it
>appears that the towers are guyed at approximately 175' and 350' above
>ground.

That's pretty close. I would estimate the guy levels as 180' and 365'.

>That leaves ~140' at the top unguyed. Is that approximately
>correct? And if so, isn't that a very great length of a slender
>uniform cross-section tower to be left to support itself--especially
>given the high wind loads one would expect in the unsheltered seaside
>location?

That is not unusual given that there is no additional load above the 
upper guys except for lighting. However, that is an old photo of the 
Hull towers. In 1999 they were completely refurbished. New base 
insulators were installed, and the towers were re-guyed with five 
levels. The lead-based red and white paint was completely removed and 
replaced with new paint. See these articles by Scott Fybush:

http://www.fybush.com/sites/2005/site-050805.html

http://www.fybush.com/sites/2005/site-050819.html

The first shows the current guy levels.

Dale H. Cook, Chief Engineer, Centennial Broadcasting, 
Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA - WZZI / WZZU / WLNI / WLEQ
http://plymouthcolony.net/starcity/starcity.html