Phil, have you ever read a book called The Life and Times of the 
Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson? If not, you should get it from 
NLS.  He grew up in Des Moines and wrote about his childhood 
there.  He has also written numerous other books all of which are 
great in my opinion.  Jim WA6EKS

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Phil Scovell <[log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Date sent: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 15:55:19 -0700
Subject: My Favorite Tall Tower

I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa where one of the radio and TV 
stations had a
building downtown with a weather tower, so called, on top of the 
building.
It was a 4-legged tower that tapered up from the 4 corners of the 
building
to something like heavy gaged rohn tower at the top where the 
lights were
displayed.  This weather tower was seen from all over and about 
20 miles,
and more, in most directions.  I recently typed in the old call 
letters of
the TV station but couldn't find info on the tower today so I 
typed in the
newer call letters and found it listed as a weather beacon.  A 
youtube short
video talked about damage to the tower during one winter of harsh 
cold
tempes and ice build up on the tower.  When ice chunks broke off 
when
melting, it broke 250 of the 4500 lights so they had to be 
replaced.  The
tower, I learned is 500 feet plus the 2 or 3 stories of the 
building below.
No guy cables; it is free standing.  Each of the 4 colors of 
light has a
little rhyming jingle but I don't know if I can recall them all.  
Let's see.
When it shines red, it means warmer weather is ahead.  Green, 
nothing new
foreseen.  White means colder weather is in sight and I believe 
blue refers
to rain.  If anything is blinking, precipitation is in the 
forecast.  I
lived in far northeast Des Moines, almost where the highway I80 
crosses
north of Des Moines, which wasn't there when I was born but built 
later in
the fifties.  Anyhow, I went to a friend's house out in the 
country, north
of the highway, and standing in the yard, I could see the tower 
during the
daylight hours without any trouble and I would have been at least 
20 miles
north of the weather tower.  I'd sure like a 3 element 40 up on 
top of that
baby.  I was please to see the tower was still up and being 
maintained and
used by Ioeans to check the weather.  Even during my tower 
climbing days, I
wouldn't have touched that tower with a ten foot pole.  I'm 
guessing an
elevator is used internally but I believe I heard once, years ago 
from a
commercial tower guy I knew, that you have to stop at one point 
and climb
the 110 foot top to manually change the bulbs that are a foot 
apart but I'm
not certain of that.

Phil.
K0NX