Troy, et al:
Regarding a free standing tower, you might check out www.heightstowers.com.
They make a very nice series of aluminum towers, complete with engineering
specs, and a Fold-over kit that makes it easy to work on antennas at ground
level.
Regarding bolt selection: this is more complicated than it may appear for a
SS tower. BTW, there are no "Grade 5 SS bolts" There are SS bolts per F593C
that are good, but not as strong as Grade 5 medium carbon or Grade 8 alloy
steel bolts. If you want to know more visit "the bolt supply house ltd"
website. There are many other good websites that can provide similar
engineering data.
Bolts in a SS tower are most likely in shear, which is the worse type of load
for a bolt. Most Bolts are rated for tensile strength in psi, and are
derated to "allowable stress" by taking the allowable to be 60% of the rated
maximum.
Shear stress is lower still, 1/3 of the allowable tensile stress.
These are the design values that a PE would use to design a tower according
to current accepted standards.
Regards,
Bob, W5LT
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