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HI!- Im looking for any info on Satellite Earth Station antennas- There is one nearby, (in southern Ireland) that has a 500+ft sqaure based, free-standing antenna/transmitter next to a huge satellite dish. The antenna is painted alternating red and white and has a platform with various bits and pieces ontop. There is a vertical ladder going straight to the platform that starts from about 4 ft off the ground (The antenna kinda looks like the eiffel tower). The area around the antenna and dish is not fenced off whatsoever. I need to know how to identify for sure if this is an AM antenna or not. If anyone has any ideas or info, it would be much appreciated.
Cheers!

AM antennas must have large insulators (usually glass or ceramic) separating them from the ground. If they don't have these, they ground out and do not function. That means that the absence of insulators is almost a certain identifier for the tower not being AM.

Some other clues: AM towers use the entire structure to broadcast, so they rarely have anything (stingers, dishes, etc) bolted to them. AM towers in virtually every 1st world nation (which I take to include Ireland, even if some of our English friends might disagree ) have fences surrounding them by law, to prevent children, livestock, or young BASE jumpers from being acccidentally electrocuted.

My best guess is that there is very little chance your tower is AM.


P.S. I understand that another sure fire way to tell is to bring another jumper, and have him grab the tower first. Stand by with a large (hence well insulating) stick to beat him with, to remove him from the circuit if the tower does turn out to be AM.

I must disagree. I can not condone Tom's suggestion. DO NOT do that to a fellow jumper. get a whuffo instead.

Cheers Tom!- Thats very helpful.
Ive only been inside the Earth station compound once and it was extremely easy to get in. the front gate was open and all i had to do was 'covertly' sneak right in. The whole compound is surrounded by a low barbed wire fence and leads onto farmers fields.
When you say that "by law AM antennas must have a fence around them" -i guess you mean, directly around them. Do you think that it is possible that in Satellite Earth Station cases, having a fence around the whole compound would count??- also, cos' we are talking about ireland!!

Rolling on the floor......

"Hey would you like to do some ground crew tonite?"

Sorry- dont do ground crew- I jump!
Are you asking me?.... im based in ireland- aren't you in Oz???


Anyway, Im working offshore at the moment.....