When we arrived on the island of Saipan in early March, we found that Ed the Tower Man had arrived
before us. Ed is the top honcho world tower man whom we bump into from time to time. He was
almost finished with the tower inspection and adjusting of the 4 tall (over 200 feet) towers that belong
to this radio station here in Saipan.
We talked to him one night about the correct way to study a tower. First off, you have to have tower
measuring equipment that is accurate and just. Most of the time, simple plumb lines will no longer do.
Ed usually uses a transit or theodolite to see whether the towers are straight and plumb. The USA
publishes a certain standard....certain specifications...of how straight a tower must be. The rule is 1000
to 1 which would mean that if a tower was 1000 feet tall, it could be one foot out of line. A shorter
tower, less inches out of line.
He found one of the towers to be in trouble so worked to bring it back into line by tightening and
loosening the guy cables on various sides of the tower. And what makes a tower go out of line? The
stresses of life!
Saipan is in the typhoon area and experiences high winds. The antennas that hang between the towers
have cement weights on them to make them hang straight and to keep a “hold” on them when the
typhoons come. Some of those weights are 5 tons!! And in the midst of some very strong winds, the
weights can rise 4 feet into the air. What pressures! What burdens!
The towers and antennas are very near the ocean and the salt spray causes pieces of the antenna to rust
out. If a piece fails, it puts more stress on another part of the antenna which causes more stress on the
tower which causes more stress on the other towers.....well, you can see where I am going with this.
In the stresses of life, how straight do you stand? How many people are tied to you? Who causes
whom to lean? What's the standard that we can use to measure our straightness and our plumbness?
Who is our expert “tower man”?
In Amos 7:7 & 8, it says:
I had another vision from the LORD. In it I saw him standing beside a wall that had been built with the
use of a plumb line, and there was a plumb line in his hand. He asked me, “Amos, what do you see?”
“A plumb line,” I answered. Then he said, “I am using it to show that my people are like a wall that is
out of line.”
Whenever any of us sees a tower, let us use it to remind ourselves of the measuring we all need to keep
within HIS standards. READ the BOOK!
