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Wild hair up my ass. I want to buy an old fire lookout tower.

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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 08:18 PM
Original message
Wild hair up my ass. I want to buy an old fire lookout tower.
Am I nuts? I read about a guy picking one up on a $16 bid. He hired a crane and some steel workers and got it moved and erected on some property he owned. What a location for early evening cocktails and sleepouts on hot nights. I could put my ham radio antennas on it, too.
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Zorro Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 08:27 PM
Response to Original message
1. Go for it
Check out the abandoned missile silos, too. They come up for sale every now and then.
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short bus president Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 08:31 PM
Response to Original message
2. If you know where to look
(which I don't), old steel can be had cheaply.

But how much would your liability insurance be to have one on your property? I would not want to own one anywhere near teenagers, or anyone else who might go up and come down the fast, hurty way.
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 09:15 PM
Response to Reply #2
12. The liability has to be tough.
Unless you can make it semi-functional. Allow the local VFD to use it, especially during high fire risk times? But, yes: no children, no teens, no drunks, and certainly no Republicans. The Repubs would just use it to survey their timber-for-profit domain.
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short bus president Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 10:19 PM
Response to Reply #12
23. I hadn't thought of the VFD thing
I considered having the local VFD burn down the trailer that was on my lot when I bought it, but ended up selling it off cheap. Would they insist on a role in placement, though, if they were going to use it for spotting?

BTW, you should've grown that wild hair earlier in life - Rush's kept his out of the 'Nam.
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jody Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 08:35 PM
Response to Original message
3. Go for it. I've spent many a day & night in one and
the view is spectacular. My wife always complained when the wind got above 30 mph but I thought it was stimulating.

Do it! :thumbsup:
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nothingshocksmeanymore Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 08:37 PM
Response to Original message
4. Nothing like having a place to climb and see forever when the
spirit moves you to do so...go for it! When I come visit maybe I can climb it too :D
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 09:11 PM
Response to Reply #4
9. But how fast can we come down those stairs when a t-storm brews?
Yikes! I read a story a couple of years ago about some folks who rented a fire tower for a few nights and stayed up there during a particularly bad western thunderstorm. Gives a whole new meaning to James Taylor's "I've seen fire and I've seen rain"!
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nothingshocksmeanymore Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 09:27 PM
Response to Reply #9
16. Hook up some ropes...we can repel down!
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SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 08:40 PM
Response to Original message
5. Here's a link for govt auctions in NC..maybe they have one
http://www.government-auctions-guide.com/FreeState.asp?ID=34
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 09:11 PM
Response to Reply #5
10. Thanks for the link SoCal.
I'll study that tomorrow.
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Lars39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 08:41 PM
Response to Original message
6. If we don't hear from you, we'll know you've gone the way of the
park ranger in the Red Green Show. :)

Sounds kinda fun. I've seen 'em and always wanted to climb one.
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oneighty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 09:14 PM
Response to Reply #6
11. Hee! Hee!
YES! Gord, I think his name is.

180
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 09:18 PM
Response to Reply #6
13. Sorry, I'm clueless.
Who was Red Green (sounds like a Paul Auster character from his New York Trilogy to me) and what happened to the park ranger?
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Lars39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 09:25 PM
Response to Reply #13
15. This link should answer all your questions!!!!
http://www.redgreen.com/

:)
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 09:50 PM
Response to Reply #15
21. Too cool!
Thanks.
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Pocho Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 08:50 PM
Response to Original message
7. TAKE IT EASY BUT TAKE IT
You know that its not how well the antenna works but how it looks that counts. If nothing else, it's worth a photo in QST. HI HI.

GUD BSNS OM QSL 73 ES CUL K9STR DE XE1/N9VIU
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 09:06 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. Maybe it'll look good enough for the cover of QST!
Edited on Sat Aug-16-03 09:20 PM by DemoTex


I agree! Looks are everything. Hell, I might not even connect that big log-periodic yagi to my rig. Lightning dangers being what they are. I'll just sit back, sip whiskey, and watch that sucker. I'll rotate it every now and then, just to impress the neighbors. I might even aim it towards Mexico.

Good to hear from you OM. FB. CUL.

73
Mac

BTW: Any storm effects there?

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Pocho Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 09:25 PM
Response to Reply #8
14. WE'VE BEEN IN THE NEW HOUSE FOR NIN E MONTHS NOW,
and I've gotten as far as going on the roof and measuring the size of the ground plane needed. Maybe manana I'll think about making it. Time has different meaning here.
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 09:49 PM
Response to Reply #14
20. Well, I'll be in the mountain house in NC on 9/3.
Time slows down then for me, too. We will get that QSO in one of these days. Maybe manana.

Mac
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leftist_rebel1569 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 09:28 PM
Response to Original message
17. That's cool...
where do they sell them? Online anywhere?
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DemBones DemBones Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 09:37 PM
Response to Original message
18. What do you mean: "I could put my ham radio antennas on it, too"??

You KNOW you thought of that first! :evilgrin:

73 from a Georgia ham
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 09:46 PM
Response to Reply #18
19. Heh, heh, heh ...
Actually, yes. I've been studying where I can put the base for a 75' (or so) crank-up tower. But that is so limiting. So much concrete. All for one antenna! Then the fire tower popped into my mind. I've always loved them. I could mount a yagi on the top, verticals around the rails, dishes anywhere, and more slopers than the law allows! And I could operate, occasionally, from the tower cab (grounded to the steel frame).

CQ, CQ, CQ-twenty, this is K9STR lookout-tower portable-QRP calling CQ, CQ, CQ ...

73
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DemBones DemBones Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-16-03 10:15 PM
Response to Reply #19
22. Yep, I recognize the pattern in your reasoning. It would be good

for all these other reasons, and you could get it for next to nothing, and, oh, yeah, by the way, you could put the antennas on it, too. LOL.

73
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