| Antenna Height Chart |
| In the United States, tower lighting and painting guidelines are governed by the Federal Government. Tower lighting is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Title 47, Part 17. Below is a summary of the regulations pertaining to tower lighting. This information can be useful in determining overall altitude of a tower as well as determining altitudes while climbing or in freefall.
The following table applies to those towers lit with red lights. Generally towers equipped with white strobe-type lights will use less lights (on a personal note, I have found that antennas without red lights do not typically follow this guideline). For practical purposes, their placement approximates the placement of flashing red lights in the table below. Also, there are many antennas that utilize white lights in the daytime, and a different sequence of red lights at night.
If a tower has an antenna or structure more than 20' higher than the main tower, it also must be lit with a flashing light. The following trend can be extrapolated to include towers up to 2200'. For additional information, you can download a similar antenna height charts below in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format:
Towers Marked with White Lights for Day and White Lights for Night (48 kb download)
Towers Marked with White Lights for Day and Red Lights for Night (87 kb download)
Painted Tower / Red Lights for Night (129 kb download) |
| Overall Ht. (Feet) |
Light Placement (F=flashing H=overall height) |
Total # of Lights |
| < 150 |
H |
1 |
| 150-300 |
H(F), 1/2 |
2 |
| 300-450 |
H(F), 2/3, 1/3 |
3 |
| 450-600 |
H(F), 3/4, 1/2(F), 1/4 |
4 |
| 600-750 |
H(F), 4/5, 3/5, 2/5(F), 1/5 |
5 |
| 750-900 |
H(F), 5/6, 2/3(F), 1/2, 1/3(F), 1/6 |
6 |
| 900-1050 |
H(F), 6/7, 5/7, 4/7(F), 3/7, 2/7(F), 1/7 |
7 |
| 1050-1200 |
H(F), 7/8, 3/4(F), 5/8, 1/2(F), 3/8, 1/4(F), 1/8 |
8 |
| 1200-1350 |
H(F), 8/9, 7/9, 2/3(F), 5/9, 4/9(F), 1/3, 2/9(F), 1/9 |
9 |
| 1350-1500 |
H(F), 9/10, 4/5(F), 7/10, 3/5(F), 1/2, 2/5(F), 3/10, 1/5(F), 1/10 |
10 |
| 1500-1650 |
H(F), 10/11, 9/11, 8/11(F), 7/11, 6/11(F), 5/11, 4/11(F), 3/11, 2/11(F), 1/11 |
11 |
| 1650-1800 |
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12 |
| 1800-1950 |
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13 |
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