In Elk Grove Village, Illinois, there is a radio (??) tower that
appears to be upside down. Rational thought indicates that this is not
so, and that the engineers meant for the pointy part to be on the
ground and the part that looks like the base in the air. Could you
please enlighten me as to why this is so? I nearly drive off the road
laughing every time I see it.

Post a picture!!

Vague explanation: Radio station antennas can be a single short rod,
but then the station would broadcast evenly in all directions.  Their
coverage area would be circular.

Radio stations in neighboring towns with similar frequencies are
always competing over coverage, with the FCC as referee.  So, if you
live south of San Francisco, and your favorite SF radio station has
weak signal, it's probably because a station in San Jose doesn't want
your station to send signal down there and cause interference.

To limit and shape its coverage area, a radio station needs an array
of antennas arranged like bowling pins.  A fancy setup like that can
broadcast south and north and east, but not, say, northwest or
northeast.  This makes the antenna a wide thing.

So, something like that might be going on.  Maybe they're a service
broadcasting at lower frequency than FM radio (like 10 Mhz instead of
100 Mhz), which makes the antenna array wider than a few feet.

Or do you think maybe the antenna is for hire, so they need room to
mount antennas for lots of companies?  Or do you think maybe they had
a zoning problem and could make the antenna wider on top, but not
allowed to make it wider on bottom?

Your description reminds me of the electric or "hydro" towers I've
seen in Quebec. They always looked upside down to me as well. It
appears these V-structures were developed to reduce the amount of
steel used.


"When the first high-voltage lines were run from the Manic-Outardes
complex to the load centres, very massive self-supporting towers were
used. These towers require an average of 21 tonnes of steel for each
kilometre of line. Hydro-Québec researchers then developed the guyed-V
tower, which requires only 11.8 tonnes of steel per kilometre of line,
on average."

Picture: The James Bay transmission system
http://www.hydro.qc.ca/visit/virtual_visit/images/i_reseau_transport_02.jpg

Article: The James Bay transmission system
http://www.hydro.qc.ca/visit/virtual_visit/reseau_transport.html


-K~

Alas, I have no photo, as it is near where another member of my family
lives, not I. However, it is just one spear--not the V-shape as in
Quebec. One spear, with the tip at the ground and the flat base at the
top and a hundred-million  wires holding it up, thank heavens. Also it
may not be a radio tower at all. I really have no idea what it is for.
Contacting aliens?