Radio Towers and its masts are among the tallest structures of the world which is design to support antennas or aerials that are being used for telecommunication, transmission and news casting on televisions. They operate the same with our electricity pylons and wind turbine towers.
Let us define first what is tower and mast. Some people might misuse or use them interchangeably. In engineering parlance , the term tower is an antenna and a self-supporting structure connecting to the ground while the mast is the perpendicular or vertical antenna support attached to the other structures like a building, vehicle or a tower. It is cheaper to build than a tower. However, it needs ample space in order to accommodate its needed guy-wires as its strong support.
Antenna or aerials is a device with a couple of radio waves used in radio transmitter or receiver. It can capture electromagnetic waves and produce small voltage which will then be magnified by the radio transmitter to produce high radio frequency current in order to supply both transmitter and receiver such as radio, television broadcasting, mobile phones, radar and other communication systems. Depending on the designs of the antenna, radio waves can be sent and received from any direction within its particular allocation areas.
Towers are mostly made up of steel lattice just like the Eiffel Tower and Crystal Palace of London. This provides great strength, strong wind resistance using lightweight materials. Almost all of the guyed masts are made up of tubular steels. This type of construction has more advantage than other types because its cables and other equipments can withstand changing weathers. This design is generally used in radio and TV broadcasting. Radio towers & Free standing towers provide a complete wide range of designs for effective communication systems.
One example for communication system is the KVLY_TV mast – the tall television transmitter in North Dakota United State finished in the year 1963. It was the tallest structure of the US until such time in the year 1974 it was superseded by the Warsaw radio communication mast. It collapsed in the year 1991, making the KVLY-TV as again the tallest structure in the US.
Burj Khalifa became the tallest in the year 2008. Burj Khalifa still remains as the third World’s Tallest tower; US remains to be on top. Burj Khalifa is not a self-supporting tower; it is guyed-mast with the height of 113 feet from its transmitting antenna and including the lattice tower where it mounted and towers around 1,950 feet from the ground.
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