Group,
It has been a number of years since I lived and operated full time in the
UK, but it seemed fairly normal back then for us to guy a crank up tower
(belts and braces). I did it because of the sudden winds that would come up
in the night with no prior warning, sometime 60 mph plus and a couple of
instances of 90 mph plus Hurricane Force. At one time I had a Rotatable
tower that was guyed and it operated very well and very safe way, even
though I had a tad too much wind load on it, my other reason for guying it.
Why use a crank up tower at all if you want to guy it you may ask? You would
have to live in England to understand the petty burrocratic rules that exist
regarding how you live your life. The main reason for a crank up was that
would be all that would be ever approved. To get a tower up in an urban
environment at all legally could take months and even years. Where I lived
you would have to post the fact in your front garden, so that small minded
neighbors could be given the chance to petition against it, which of course
they would.
In one instance the neighbors petitioned that a 50 foot tower would spoil
there view. The view they were worried about was the local Gas Works that
consisted of one 250 foot high and one 150 foot high coal gas containers and
associated maze of 300 foot conveyors and the like. For people in the USA
please envision a derelict oil refinery and you may come close.
I wrote this in a fairly light hearted way and for a bit of fun, but
seriously Hams in this country are so lucky to be pretty well free to do
what they want, even if sometimes what you want to do is governed by CC&R's,
but you can always move. No CC&R's in the England, but you trying getting a
tower up in an Urban area.
I love the USA, life is so much easier if you are a Ham.
Mike AB6WN
One of the things that detracts from towertalk somewhat is
what I guess is best described as a tendency for presumption.
When it comes to crank-ups, that means not guying them.
Yet there are crank-ups that are _meant_ to be guyed.
Probably not a good idea to guy a crank-up that was not
meant to be guyed, but that doesn't mean that a blanket
"don't guy crank-ups" is valid.
Or not climbing crank-ups when nested.
There are crank-ups that are _meant_ to be climbed
this way. A blanket presumption that climbing a nested
crank-up requires putting bits of one's body in harm's
way is invalid.
Or that things NEC or OSHA applies where they don't.
They do have applicability as good common sense, though
again a blanket application of them to all situations is
invalid (must follow NEC in other countries or OSHA applying
to non-occupational situations [that is what the O stands for]).
Or guying towers to other towers. I would think a bit more
needs to be known before it can be condemned. The guy
point looks to be quite a bit higher up than others like this
that I've worked on in the past. There are obvious concerns
but that is about as far as one can go without being able to
see the big picture - otherwise W7RM doing the same was
a bad idea & that's very hard to swallow (as extended, that
would call into question Rush's engineering).
No, it isn't AB105 but then again do we know what all is
tugging on N5OT's short tower? No. Is it a bad design? Not
necessarily.
Just like aluminum masts - they have their use - as well as
there being situations where there might be a reason to use
two thrust bearings between the rotator & top of the tower.
Something to reflect upon (sorry for the pun).
73 & HNY/HLNY, VR2BrettGraham
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