[TowerTalk] Guying a self-supporter

[Rick Karlquist]

Bill wrote:
> The following was Steve's question to me and my response which was snet
> off the reflector.
>
> Steve said:"Bill,
>
> Are you an engineer? If so, can you devise a case, using a reasonable
> tower and guy system, which contradicts my (and others) "theory"? I've
> put this to a few engineers, and they haven't come up with one. I'd be
> the first to shut up about it if an example could be shown...

It is easy to imagine a guyed self supporter that is unsafe.
Self supporters are strong at the bottom and weak at the top.
If you guy a self supporter to allow a huge antenna to be placed
at the top, the twisting force of the antenna will now overstress
the top sections.  This can bring down the tower even if bending
moment etc is otherwise OK.  You might be able to get away with
this configuration if you counted on the mast to slip, and you had
a breakaway coax link.  You are still off the air, but at least
the tower doesn't fall.

Rick N6RK