For at least three months, an old cell tower near me got a new strobe light which must be some sort of super LED. It is 2-3 times brighter then the old lights. But, it never switches over to red at night. Blinding from a car 6-7 miles away.

Yesterday my neighbor who lives on a hill 3-4 miles from the tower came over asking who he needs to call to complain. His bed room strobes all night, and he can't sleep. He is now on a breathing machine for something, but he blames this tower.

I called the FAA today, and they claimed there is no regulation making the lights go to red at night? If so, then why do all the others switch?? They told me to drive up the hill and get a phone number of the tower and complain to them.

If it is actually a "cell phone" tower, it will have a name and phone number on the door or fence around it and calling them will probabally get fast results. If it's owned by someone other than a cell company all bets are off on even finding out who owns it, and they may or may not be very cooperative about complaints. As for lighting requirements, the FAA recomends the lighting, the FCC makes it official. If you can translate "Legal" into english, check this web page.

http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/policy/dtv/lighting.html

Basically complain to the FCC, and good luck.

Hmmmmm, pellet rifle.

Gump

Polycarbonet (lexan) lens, anything less than a .308 will bounce off.

14CFR77 spells out the criteria for "safe, efficient use, and preservation of the navigable airspace"
Additionally, AC 70/7460-1K is about "Obstruction Marking and Lighting."

Try this website.

http://www.cellreception.com/towers/

Maybe it will tell you.

I live close to two of the largest TV towers in the country(about 2000' AGL) and they are about a half dozen miles apart. The SW one of the 2 always flashes white. Not sure if it is so you can tell them apart, or what.

The cell tower we have on our land has a 800 number and a location on the door. Most newer ones do.

Hijacking the thread a little bit, but I had to gripe.

The new LEDs being used by the local police and highway patrol here in NM are way too bright (was there really anyone who was having trouble seeing the old configurations). When you are approaching them on the road it is blinding. Pulled up to a DUI checkpoint the other night and told the cops standing there that they were going to get run over and it wasn't from drunk drivers but from their bright lights blinding people.

Sorry, had to rant.

88H wrote:Hijacking the thread a little bit, but I had to gripe.

The new LEDs being used by the local police and highway patrol here in NM are way too bright (was there really anyone who was having trouble seeing the old configurations). When you are approaching them on the road it is blinding. Pulled up to a DUI checkpoint the other night and told the cops standing there that they were going to get run over and it wasn't from drunk drivers but from their bright lights blinding people.

Sorry, had to rant.

I agree, especially at night. At the FD we had to get dimmer switches installed to dim the intensity while on scene at night. It was difficult to watch your surroundings or provide patient care as you were blinded every time you look up.

88H wrote:Hijacking the thread a little bit, but I had to gripe.

The new LEDs being used by the local police and highway patrol here in NM are way too bright (was there really anyone who was having trouble seeing the old configurations). When you are approaching them on the road it is blinding. Pulled up to a DUI checkpoint the other night and told the cops standing there that they were going to get run over and it wasn't from drunk drivers but from their bright lights blinding people.

Sorry, had to rant.

100% agree! Especially when there is a bit of rain. Can't see a bloody thing. Also, the school buses around here have a strobe on top to use in the fog, but most leave them on all the time. Follow that for a few miles and you see more spots then road.

LED light bars are here to stay, and the cops are NOT going to give them up untill they find something smaller and brighter. As far as cops are concerned "brighter is better" and they really don't care what the public thinks, "officer safety" is almost a religion. Also they can get a lot more tickets in a speed trap becuse they are harder to see.

From a pilot's perspective, I'd just as soon lights on towers be as bright as possible. In the night time, perhaps they're annoying, but in the daytime, even relatively bright flashing lights are hard to see--if LEDs or super bright strobes or whatever will make them stand out better, that's fine with me.

3 years ago, my buddy and I were flying back from OSH. We'd stopped in Seward, NE, just west of Lincoln, to visit his sis. When we took off westbound, he (who is a superb navigator) said, "Look out for some towers on our route. They're not too far away." Well, yeah! There are a pair of them side by side just to the south of V138 that stretch up to almost 1500' AGL--and we were barely above them by then. There are several in the area, just sitting there ready to reach out and grab someone. And of course, their guy wires are pretty invisible, too, and they stretch out at about 45 degrees in all directions from near the top of the towers. They showed up on my current GPS obstacle download as being to the left of our route--but in reality they were on the right, so don't believe your own obstacle downloads--and the flashing lights on them were not all that visible in the somewhat hazy conditions we had at the time.

Cary

Hmmmmm, pellet rifle.

Gump

I love how your posts are right on target.

88H wrote:Hijacking the thread a little bit, but I had to gripe.

The new LEDs being used by the local police and highway patrol here in NM are way too bright (was there really anyone who was having trouble seeing the old configurations). When you are approaching them on the road it is blinding. Pulled up to a DUI checkpoint the other night and told the cops standing there that they were going to get run over and it wasn't from drunk drivers but from their bright lights blinding people.

Sorry, had to rant.

I agree 100% too! At night, I find myself trying to look away from the bright LED flashing lights when passing the smokey bears with them disco lights on with a costumer on the shoulder. It's even worse with a buggy windshield or in the rain.

I know these guys get run into often when parked on the shoulders and now they want to be seen even better. But I think too many and too bright of lights is counterproductive. The bright blue lights are the worse, too. And some of these State Trooper and County Mountys have a lights in every orfus of the vehicle, it seems.

Back to the offensive cell tower and with no help from the FAA, I had my neighbor who could not sleep, drive up to the tower and call the number to complain. Early this morning the tower is no flashing a soft red light. The fix was so fast, I think it must have been a switch.

180jocky wrote:I love how your posts are right on target.

My point exactly!!!

Gump