On Mon, 29 May 2006 13:03:31 -0500, David G. Nagel wrote:
wrote:
David G. Nagel wrote:
Allodoxaphobia wrote:
On Sun, 28 May 2006 22:31:59 -0500, 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 in the U.S.A., contact the FCC and get the information from their
database. Elsewise, contact the wireless regulatory agency of the
country that the tower is located in.

Jonesy

In the USA if it has a light on it then it is over 200 FT tall. If there
is no light on the tower it is less than 200ft tall. 200 ft is the magic
number for the FAA and the FCC for tower lighting.
If you can see the section joins then count them an mult by 20 ft. 20 ft
is the height of the average tower section. Your tower could use 30 or
40 ft sections though. You will have to inspect the tower up close to
estimate the height of a section.

Dave N

Almost right, over 200 feet or close to an airport or heliport, in
which case the max unlighted height slopes to zero at the airport
and follows a slope that depends on the type of airport.

Title 47, Part 17.21 and Part 17.17

Correct.... But most cell towers are not near airports.

And, most cell towers are not in the U.S.A.

Jonesy

"lorentsonci" wrote in message
...
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.

This can be done using a barometer.

Drop the barometer from the top of the tower, timing the fall.
The tower height in feet is 16 times the square of the time in seconds.

Alternatively, offer to give the barometer to the tower's owner in exchange
for telling you the height of the tower.

On Sun, 28 May 2006 22:31:59 -0500, 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.

Although you are going to get a lot of answers the killer is that KISS
which leaves an answer of, no...no really, BUT depending on your math
skills you can come up with a rough approximation.

The accuracy depends on being close enough to get a reasonable angle
between the ground and top of the tower. That depends on you and the
tower being at the same height. You can determine the distance to the
tower by starting with the road at right angles to the tower and
driving a measured distance and again using trig to find the distance
to the tower, but this depends on things not only being level but the
road being straight and level and your ability to find a point where
the road is at a right angle to the tower.

So rephrased you are using right triangles to find the distance to the
tower and based on that another right triangle to find the height.
(time to study your trig functions).

Depending on your ability to determine the location of the right
angle, how level the land, the distance to the tower, and your angle
measuring ability you could come up with an error between a few
percent and as much as 20% or even more.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com