[TowerTalk] HDBX48 failure experience

[Charlie Hicks]

I just thought I'd chime in on this - back in the early 80's I had a
free-standing HDBX48 with a Hygain TH6 on it at about 18" above the top of
the tower and what I remember as a Ham-M rotator (not sure on that one).  It
was out on a farmstead and pretty open to the wind from most directions.

Long story but I left it there when I moved.  A couple years later I drove
by and the new owner hadn't done anything with it.  The rotator had stripped
out the the beam was free-wheeling in the wind.

Another year later the owner called me and said the whole tower, beam and
all had come down in a wind storm.  He said the winds were clocked at around
80 MPH in the area.

So, perhaps the combination of the beam spinning in the wind along with the
tower in the wind caused it to go down?

I forget what the wind load was on the TH6 - maybe 10 sq ft?

Charlie  K0CKH