[TowerTalk] Guying an Aluminum Tower

[Dan Zimmerman N3OX]

And remember, if you're going to do your own engineering on an
aluminum tower, make sure you understand fatigue limits.

What do you suppose the manufacturers of aluminum towers do?   Do they
just design the tower so that stresses are very *unlikely* to exceed
the fatigue limit of the alloy they're using?

That's pretty significant over-engineering; if you know the wind speed
probablilities and projected service life of the tower, you could
probably allow the stresses to be higher, but if you're selling your
product to hams who might want to overload it and hope it lasts for 20
years, you're probably going to be more conservative.  Otherwise,
maybe you need a disclaimer like "sways 10 million times and then
falls down"

Dan