[TowerTalk] How do you remove guys to walk a beam up Rohn 25?

[Howard Dybedock]

DANGER - ALERT!

At 07:11 PM 4/11/99 -0400, Bill Fisher - W4AN wrote:
>Here's how it was done...
>
>Raise antenna to just below set of guys.  Boom is directly under one of
>the guy attachment points.  Next, he took a HIGH QUALITY come-a-long and
>attached it under the boom to the tower.  He attached the come-a-long to
>the guy wire with a juma (something I had never seen before).  He then
>cranked on the come-a-long until there was slack at the normal guy
>attachment point.  He unhooked preform for the guy and raised the antenna
>past this point by a foot.  Then he reattached the guy wire and unhooked
>the come-a-long.  We did this 3 times to raise it to 105 feet.

DO NOT EVER DO THIS! !   It's extremely dangerous!

What occurs above is a transfer of the guy attachment load, through the
come-along from one point on the tower to another WITH SOMEONE ON THE
TOWER.  If anything should slip, break, or malfunction, that person will be
dead!

The correct and safe way to accomplish the same thing is use an extra guy
wire (must be longer than the top wire on the tower) and a couple preform
grips,  install the guy and preform a foot or so below the bottom guy and
bring it into the tower base (loose).  Then elevate the antenna to the
loaded guy wire, stop and secure it between the loaded guy and the
temporary guy, and get everyone OFF the tower.  Extend the temporary wire
to the anchor,  attach it and bring it up to tension, and as it picks up
the load, loosen the permanent guy, slack it off, and drop it.  When the
temporary guy is absolutely secure and the tower is plumb, then and only
then, can someone go up the tower, slip the permanent guy under the
antenna, and move the antenna on up to the next guy level where it is
secured again.  Then, get off the tower, pull the permanent guy  back to
the anchor, transfer the load back to the permanent guy, slack off the
temporary guy and drop it so it can be moved up to the next level.  You do
this at each level until the antenna is in place.

This way, if anything lets go while the load transfers are being made,
everybody may be running for cover, but you won't have somebody riding the
thing down!  It'll take a bit longer, but is safe.

73,
Howard - AK9F
Director of Engineering
Midwest Aerial Structures, Inc.






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