How come they didn't notice that their service went dead when the tower was stolen?
based on the description this was an unattended repeater
Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says
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Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says
#12Note that the tower doesn't really look like that picture in the nypost - it's a much more portable looking affair: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Y9QMBDPnazGT1cgj9
A few guys with plasma cutters and a winch could have that pieced and loaded on a flatbed in no time.
Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says
#13Wow.
My feeling is that metal theft is getting out of control. If the news reporting on it is to be trusted, cases are in fact rising. Thieves have probably always hit junkyards and stolen wire, but now there seems to be more and more infrastructure hit as well.
The oddest aspect of this is that scrap steel isn't even worth that much. How many tons could that be? Let's say it's 400 tons, that's maybe $100k. And it seems like extremely high risk, because they're going to be looking for this everywhere now. Why would they not just steal two or three cars, which would never make the news. They must be skilled to pull something like that off in a night.
Edit: Another user linked the street view, apparently the article image wasn't the actual tower. So based on that it's much less metal even.
Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says
#14Wow. My feeling is that metal theft is getting out of control. If the news reporting on it is to be trusted, cases are in fact rising. Thieves have probably always hit junkyards and stolen wire, but now there seems to be more and more infrastructure hit as well. The oddest aspect of this is that scrap steel isn't even worth that much. How many tons could that be? Let's say it's 400 tons, that's maybe $100k. And it se…
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Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says
#15I need to check my homeowner's insurance to see if I'm covered if the house is stolen.
Note to self: don't build a steel house.
Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says
#16Note that the tower doesn't really look like that picture in the nypost - it's a much more portable looking affair: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Y9QMBDPnazGT1cgj9
A few guys with plasma cutters and a winch could have that pieced and loaded on a flatbed in no time.
Not easily. Those metal tension cables are dangerous to cut and it’s going to have to fall like a tree in some direction.
Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says
#17There's no discussion, but a 200 foot tower doesn't come down without evidence on the ground unless you have, well, a 200 foot crane.
Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says
#18Wow. My feeling is that metal theft is getting out of control. If the news reporting on it is to be trusted, cases are in fact rising. Thieves have probably always hit junkyards and stolen wire, but now there seems to be more and more infrastructure hit as well. The oddest aspect of this is that scrap steel isn't even worth that much. How many tons could that be? Let's say it's 400 tons, that's maybe $100k. And it se…
Our local metro area has had a problem with copper thieves for a few years now, cutting open and stealing the wiring from street lights.
People are why we can't have nice things, apparently.
Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says
#19My money is on this being insurance fraud.
Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says
#20How come they didn't notice that their service went dead when the tower was stolen?
The tweet says "a tower site" which implies they have others. It's entirely possible/likely that they have multiple towers for better coverage; if one went down they would lose some coverage area but not all of it. It's an AM station, so they may also shut down overnight (as many small stations do to avoid over-propagation). Off topic: I could have guessed that guy was a radio station manager without any context. The…
The tweet said that they took a crew with a bush hog ([1]) to "do early cleanup of the property before we do more work down there". So this was almost certainly a long-abandoned radio tower that they acquired and were planning to bring into service. The grass needs to be severely overgrown before you need a bush hog.