Worse case senario of this I've encountered in my work is a broadcast
tower close to Shelby, NC that was lifted off the ground, (twisted off by
a tornado), uprooting or breaking all guy wires, and then dropping pieces
of tower sections across several miles. This happened several years
ago. More conventional is a situation where we had a bull dozer operator
cut the top guywire on one of our pyrod 330 ft guyed towers, and it
folded over about 50 ft down, which folded about 50 ft down again &
again, till all was on the ground in less than a 100 ft radius. No wind
was involved in this failure.
73's de Stephen, K0SD in NC
--------- Begin forwarded message ----------
Rick's point is well taken. I submit that once guy wires are broken, all
bets are off regarding "convention wisdom". From what I could see on the
ground at Scott's (K8DX) location, it appeared that no guy wires had
broken - but until all of the downed trees are cleared, I cannot even be
absolutely sure of that.
My condolences to both Rick and Scott for their losses - it is
heartbreaking
to see so many dollars and man-hours of effort destroyed in just a few
moments.
____________________________________________________________
Amateur Radio Station K3GP - P.O. Box 343 - Louisville, Ohio 44641
Station Location - Alliance, Ohio - Grid Square EN90kv
Amateur Radio Home Page: http://www.qsl.net/k3gp
Vegetarian - An old Indian word meaning "I don't hunt so good"
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-towertalk@contesting.com
> [mailto:owner-towertalk@contesting.com]On Behalf Of Dr. Richard W.
> Musicer
> Sent: Monday, July 06, 1998 5:11 PM
> To: towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] RE: K8DX Tower Collapse--Conv. wisdom ain't so!
>
>
>
> Sorry for the delay in posting this response, but I just got home from
> the greatest hamfest in the world--Friedrichshafen, Germany. If you
> ever get the chance, don't miss it....ham radio is alive and well in
> Europe! My homecoming was somewhat less fun however, as I had lost one
> of my towers to a microburst/tree limb falling/broken guy wire routine.
> Contrary to what George K3GP wrote:
>
> >The position of the failed tower structure and the antennas on the
> >ground are consistent with the conventional wisdom that a failing
> >guyed tower will fall within 50% or less of it's height.
>
>
> It didn't happen this way at my qth. The 90 feet of Rohn 25 with
> 205BA/155BA/4 el 10m/G7 was layed out straight for the full length of
> the tower. Two-thirds of the 90 feet in my yard, and the other third
> with all destroyed antennas in the neighbors yard. Not a pretty
> picture. Don't believe the 50% conventional wisdom.
>
> 73 de Rick, N6CR in HOTlanta, GA.
>
>
>
> --
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>
>
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--------- End forwarded message ----------
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