[TowerTalk] trees as guy anchors

[Bob Perring]

Ive always thought that if I ever had to use a tree as a guy point, I
would just use bungee cords as the guying devices.

That way, I would impose a dampening on the harmonic oscillations that
might develop as the tower tried to oscillate back and forth in the wind.
(Damped harmonic oscillation calculations should be employed in your
arrangement so as to ensure that the design generates destructive
interference as opposed to reinforcement activity)
 
1.
Should the tree fall, the cord would elongate so as to not cause damage
to the tower.

2.
An additional safety precaution would be to back guy the tree so that
it could not fall towards the tower. Of course, this would only be a
problem should the tree hit the tower, since, again the bungees would
forgive the tree falling upon them.

3.
For obvious reasons, I have always been envious of those that lived in
climates where rubber trees grew quite large, an obvious benefit,
intrinsic within the very name of the support device, should the tree
ever fall towards, and hit,  the tower.

Of course, as always, if you have several trees in your yard from which
to pick as guy points, do, by all means, as K5RC suggests, get the
county agent or an arborist involved, so as to properly pick out a tree
species on your property that will more closely resemble that of a
rubber plant.

N5RP

N5RP

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