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Re: [TowerTalk] 15m monster finally up

To: "towertalk@contesting.com" <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] 15m monster finally up
From: "Ralston, William" <William.Ralston@viasat.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2012 00:25:06 +0000
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Tonno ES5TV posted:

<email link to pictures of a monstrous 15m array of 8 x 15 ele yagis in a 2-D 
stack on a 70meter tower> - an impressive engineering feat!

Roger K8RI asked:

>I wonder how well that'd scale to 40 meters and what tower height would be 
>required.

Don ND8E replied:

>Considering that 40m is 3 times 15m in wavelength +/- a smidge, looks like 
>210m tower to me.
>Gotta win the lottery two or three times to do that one!

I say:

While wavelength and linear dimensions scale linearly, area (e.g., wind 
loading) scales as the square, and volume/weight scales as the cube.  Thus, a 
scaled up tower/antennas would have about 9 times the windload and the whole 
mess would weigh about 27 times as much.

Unfortunately, material strengths don't scale up as fast as the weight (I think 
most stuff scales with the square) ... thus leaving the scaled structure too 
weak (Google search "Why Giant's Don't Exist"). So, it might be quite the 
engineering challenge to do a 40m version even if you have the lottery winnings 
to bankroll it.

I'd be happy with even half of that 15m monster scaled to 10m in my yard. :-)

--Bill N7VM







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