[TowerTalk] guy wire tension

[Pete Smith]

At 04:27 PM 2/23/2000 -0800, Al Williams wrote:
>
>Can anyone explain, in more-or-less simple terms, why guy wires need
>to have such high tension?  Intuitively (yes, I did pass some courses in
>college physics), if there is no stretching of the guy cable, it would seem
>that only enough tension is require to keep the guy on a straight line
>i.e. no slack.


There's a neat explanation on K7NV's web page (search under Yagistress) but
this layman's understanding is that the pre-tensioning changes the mode of
operation of the guywire from "taking the slack out" to "stretching the guy
material."  That means that proper tensioning results in usefully less
tower movement for a given wind or other force.

Just as an intellectual exercise, how much tension is required in the real
world (where guywires have weight) to produce an absolutely straight
guywire?  I think the answer is infinite tension.  Try pulling a sloper
dipole with feedline even close to straight!

73,  Pete N4ZR

Don't forget to update your entry in the World Contest Station Database
http://206.102.70.3/search.htm


--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
Submissions:              towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests:  towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-towertalk@contesting.com
Search:                   http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search.htm