1. Based on the way it collapsed, it was designed to collapse as safely as possible. As long as you're not directly underneath it you're fine.

  2. Is that really all it takes to take down a radio tower? That... seems like information you would want to keep a little bit more secret.

  3. It's always been this easy. It's just an antenna. It can still broadcast, just not as far. That's why they're in the mountains mostly. This was probably a private channel radio. Companies will put them up for their field techs like a public utility, department of forestry, etc. I used to have to service my companies tower up in the Saddleback mountains in Southern California. The companies who erect these can replace them pretty easily. These things are usually 4x4 accessable only.

  4. I'd imagine they took off the bolts in between the sections or else it would have fallen straight over, instead of collapsing.

  5. Meanwhile I have one in my basement I've used maybe twice ever. It cuts great but I almost always have a different tool more suited to the job at hand. What do you use it on?

  6. There are individual sections bolted together, but they’re not designed to be strong enough to support the whole tower. In the cable stayed design, the stability comes from gravity and tension on the guy wires. If it starts to fall over the bolts between sections of towers fail and it crumples down instead of falling like a tree.

  7. There are generally 3 sets of guy wires on the type of tower, at 60 degrees offset. The tension of the wires pull the structure down to the ground to keep the tower vertical. The wires are all relieved of some of there tension, then the one side is released. The remaining tension on the 2 sets still attached pulls the tower away from the wire that got cut, usually (and if the tension was correct) only the first few sections fall sideways, while gravity helps the higher sections fall straight down, more or less. Hope this is an adequate explanation.

  8. As soon as it starts to fall it does pull a bit you can see it. But its not moving fast, and as soon as its moved a few feet the cables are no longer in tension so there is no force to keep pulling it. The other thing is that its not a single rigid member (gigity) So it does not have the stiffness and strength to rotate around a point. So if you watch you can see each of the bolted sections kind of do there own thing.

  9. It's being held up by 3 cables, not 4. As it's collapsing you can see the triangles between sections. Since the cables are 120 deg apart, the 2 that are not cut are both partially pulling in the opposite direction of the cut cable, causing it to tip in that direction.

  10. Had a freind that did this years ago for a prank before portable band saws. It only takes a pair of bolt cutters

  11. It’s crazy to think that anyone with a bandsaw can just go around destroying radio towers. There are some crazy people out there who probably would.

  12. This is fine if you just plan to scrap it. If you want to reuse the tower you take it down section by section.

  13. Well now that I know this, I can’t stop thinking about how easy it would be for me to bring a network to its knees.

  14. Reminds me of that dumb scene in Prometheus when all Charlize’s character has to do to avoid the falling pillar is run to one side and she fails to do that. So aggravating.

  15. Lot of radio tower demos on the net recently. Why knock em all down? There's absolutely no possible use for them?

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