# radio towers



## [email protected] (Feb 24, 2005)

does anyone have any experience with allowing a radio tower put onto their property at around 200 feet? Pros and cons. What can be expected, any benfits for the land owner, better rardio coverage or anything, how about moenetary? Wouod you our wouldon't you consider it? What kind of hoops to jump through?


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

There is a difference between radio towers and cell towers. There are differences in types of radio towers. My dad built radio stations. In brief:

Most towers today are guyed rather than free standing. The guy wires can create issues with other signals by multipath distor... OK gotta shift gears here, pardon. TV signals can fade in and out or get funky.

Guy wires can be noisy in the wind.

Towers DO sometimes fall. Usually they crumple near the base, but anything in the area could get hit by a wire or the tower.

They don't "attract" lightning per-se, and they can act like a lightning rod to offer less of a risk to surrounding structures, but they are entertaining in any electrical event, as the buildup of charges has to cross the spark gap to ground, sometimes getting pretty intense.

There will be engineers and towermen that have to come around to test and repair transmitter equipment (there used to be a requirement of an engineer on site).

The larger issues relate to the way the surrounding land is used. Many, if not most, antennas are now directional, meaning that the FCC says the signal in particular directions cannot be above a certain level to avoid interference with other stations in those directions. The antenna is made directional by use of a ground array, which is a pattern of buried wires over a large area.

Much of anything metal within a few hundred feet of the tower can have some effect on the signal, so putting up a new electric or barbed wire fence may be out. Digging up the ground array would not be allowed, so the land can get used for pasture or hay, but not much else. Tree roots would mess with the ground array, so those are not an option.

The radio signal itself is radiated energy. Being close to a powerful signal can create some strange effects, especially with AM radio. Lights and wires can "sing" by resonating. In rare instances, people have claimed to have picked up the signal in tooth fillings. Unless your stereo system and and sound system are properly shielded, there will be interference. Within reason, the engineer of the station should be able to guide you through eliminating that problem.

In the 1950s, nuclear missiles were supposedly aimed at radio stations and followed the signals. I doubt that is a problem.  If there is a studio at an on-site transmitter building, some of the radio personalities and engineers are pretty strange.


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## anniew (Dec 12, 2002)

If a tower is over 200 feet, it requires lighting.


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

I have a high ridge on the south end of my farm. If someone wants to put a cell tower on top of it, come talk to me.


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## Travis in Louisiana (May 14, 2002)

I have been told by several people, that people who have cell towers on their property get around 1200 dollars a month rent. I don't know if this is true.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Bad if you like dark skies, and no stinking blinky lights all the time...

Great if you want around 1k/month, forever!


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## Pelenaka (Jul 27, 2007)

Harry, ty for the in depth explanation. Filing it away for when we do buy land as we've seen allot of listings with towers. Always wondered what the down side was besides the ugly factor.


~~ pelenaka ~~


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## [email protected] (Feb 24, 2005)

Thank you for all the information. I knew there had to be drawbacks. For someone with the right property a cell tower sounds like an interesting opportunity.


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