Another point is since the entire tower is RF hot not only must it stand on
an insulator at the bottom it also needs a way to get the tower lighting
voltage to it. This is done w/ "Austin Rings" basicly a pair of interlocked
toroids or rings. In addition, for lightning protection they have "johnny
balls" a pair of air spaced balls to form a spark gap.

Do a google search for these and you should find pictures.
http://hawkins.pair.com/atcitynj.shtml is one such site, just scroll to near
the bottom of the page.

"Jim" wrote in message
...
OOPS-- Tho because of security problems, many stations are off limits, but
Some of these engineers are quite proud to give you a guided tour to show
how they "tick"!! Jim