In article ,
lorentsonci wrote:

I think somone , smarter than me , will have a answer,,,, "you are
driving down the hiway and see a cell/antenna tower, it is off the
hiway but you don't know how far,,,, and you would like to know how
tall the tower is,,,????? Is there a simple (kiss) way to find out?
thanks in advance. cl.

If this is a homework/exam question... well, in that case, stop
reading and go hit your books, OK? You'll be better off in the long
run if you learn to figure such things out for yourself.



If the tower isn't too far away (too close to the visual horizon) then
you can probably treat the distance between you and the tower as a
flat, horizontal surface - that is, ignore the curvature of the earth.

If that's the case, then you can calculate the distance using
trig if you know the distance to the tower and the angular height of
the tower. You can measure the latter with a plastic protractor.

If the road you're on is straight, there's a relatively easy way to
figure out how far away the tower is from the road. Do the following:

- Drive along the road until the tower is directly off to one side -
the line from you to the tower is perpendicular to the road.

- Use a protractor to measure the number of vertical degrees that the
tower covers.

- Make a note of the odometer reading.

- Drive straight, on the road, until you have to look backwards at a
45 degree angle to see the base of the tower, and then stop. Use
the protractor to confirm the angle, so you know right where to stop.

- Take another look at the odometer.

- The difference between the two odometer readings - that is, the
distance you've driven from your starting point to your stopping
point - is identical to the distance from the starting point to the
tower.

- Multiply the distance you drive, by the tangent of the angle which
describes the tower's apparent height at the starting point. This
will be the height of the tower, plus/minus whatever errors crept
in to your measurements.

- Go through the geometry to truly understand why this works.

- Use a fluorite-lens transit and a properly charged flux capacitor to
confirm that there are no thermal or gravitational anomalies which
might have distorted the light or the distance.

If the road is curved, or the land is hilly, or the tower is far
enough away towards the horizon, then you'll need a more complex
approach... e.g. go measure it, or call the owner and ask, or do a
lookup in government records (FCC) to find the operating license
permits for the radios on the tower.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
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