Tower lights

[John120/240]

You would think that.

But on some jobs we have to use cut off fixtures and / or fixtures with big shields on them just to keep the neighbors happy.

There are people that will move in right next to the animal shelter and complain about the barking (next to the tracks/complain about the trains, etc).

I understand all of that. People live on a gravel road & complain about the dust.

But warning lights for tall towers are a necessity so the neighbors compliants are moot IMO.

 

[grich]

...Try contacting the engineering staff at one of the local TV stations. They may have solved the problem already or know someone who has...

I'm not local, but...
I've never heard of a tower light issue like this. We have white strobes by day/red strobes with side markers at night on a 400' tower. No power issues like the OP, even under fault conditions. Do you have a pic of the controller?

For reference, a typical 300-foot tower with red incand. lights at night would have a code beacon at the top with two 620W bulbs, and three side markers midway up, loaded with 116W traffic-signal bulbs.

Our 2000' tower is still lit with incand. bulbs and the 40-year-old mechanical flasher that chases the beacons upwards...looks cool and balances the load, but no longer allowed by FAA and is grandpa'ed in. Flasher looks like a crankshaft full of mercury switches. About to switch to LED bulbs on it.

 

[grich]

I understand all of that. People live on a gravel road & complain about the dust.

But warning lights for tall towers are a necessity so the neighbors compliants are moot IMO.

Not moot at all...NIMBY-ism has made it VERY hard to get new towers located anywhere in a metro area. And, there's nothing like a tower with strobe lights stuck in day-mode at midnight that will anger those neighbors.

 

[ceb58]

I'm not local, but...
I've never heard of a tower light issue like this. We have white strobes by day/red strobes with side markers at night on a 400' tower. No power issues like the OP, even under fault conditions. Do you have a pic of the controller?

For reference, a typical 300-foot tower with red incand. lights at night would have a code beacon at the top with two 620W bulbs, and three side markers midway up, loaded with 116W traffic-signal bulbs.

Our 2000' tower is still lit with incand. bulbs and the 40-year-old mechanical flasher that chases the beacons upwards...looks cool and balances the load, but no longer allowed by FAA and is grandpa'ed in. Flasher looks like a crankshaft full of mercury switches. About to switch to LED bulbs on it.

This is a painted 250' tower so it doesn't run lights during the day just the red strobes and markers a night. Have now turned it over to the POCO that owns the tower and the lights to let them figure out what to do.