anyone in telecoms/wireless tower industry?

[delagina]

what structure do you normally do.
I do see towers on foundation and think that should be easy to do.

But do you install towers on top of existing roof? this would be something I may not be comfortable doing.

I'm thinking of moving to this industry to diversify my experience. I have an interview coming up.

 

[Ron]

I have done a fair amount of this in the past. I currently do not design or analyze towers, simply because that's not where my business model leads.

I have done lattice tower designs, monopole designs and have checked existing structures for antennae attachment.

In general, towers are not installed on buildings. Antennae are installed on buildings and they do collect wind loading, so their attachments need to be checked and the structural response needs to be checked.

Foundations vary....from shallow to deep, depending on the design conditions.

 

[TheDW]

I worked in structural retrofit of towers for a year right out of school. Carriers are constantly switching out/adding antennas to existing towers, and every change requires a full analysis/report. Adding an antenna the size of a refrigerator door at the top of a 300ft tower will make a big difference in wind-induced moment at the base. The thing about that industry is that carriers/owners want such a quick turnaround that most companies specializing in this have streamlined the analysis and typical design process so much that a lot of times it just felt like data entry; taking output from tnxTower and putting them in the same spreadsheet you've already used hundreds of times. I will say I learned a good bit about steel connection design and welding...also, foundation retrofit designs in the tight spaces of those compounds could get pretty interesting.

I don't think I saw a single tower installed on a roof in the 100+ towers I worked on. I did see a guyed tower with one of the guy wires attached to a steel contraption on a roof though.

Edit: My experience was from 2014 to 2015, so relatively recently.

 

[Felix900]

I worked for a Telecom Consulting firm in KSA for almost 5 years (2009-2013). I have seen towers on roof decks.I have designed and investigated countless of towers-roof top towers, poles, monopoles, guyed supported towers and self supporting towers. With the reference to guyed supported towers on roof top, I have seen one in Doha, Qatar and several areas in the Philippines.
The roof top tower on roof deck prevalent in KSA is a mini type one capable of carrying 9 panels and 1 microwave antenna inclusive of equipment shelter.

 

[XR250]

A guy I know is the SER at one of these tower companies. I think he says he seals 50 a week or something ridiculous like that. It pretty much echos what TheDaywalker said.

 

[BUGGAR]

It is wise to be uncomfortable with putting a tower on a roof. Roof design for that is seldom in the building engineer's scope. If your potential employer does not agree, perhaps he has not passed the interview.