[TowerTalk] Tower Collapse - New Kensington, PA @ K3MJW

[Charles Mills]

One of the things that happens in a case like this is an "oscillation"
begins to occur with the tower once a guy has been compromised or even if it
is just hit hard enough to cause some backlash.  Pretty much a recipe for
disaster.

The guys keep it steady but no tower can survive a guy being compromised for
long especially with Cat 1 hurricane winds beating it.  We had sustained
winds in the 50-60 with gusts to 90 that night.  The design of these towers
just doesn't allow for this kind of catastrophic failure of its support
system.

This was posted for many reasons:
1> Maybe the group can learn from it.
2> Maybe we can learn from it with some constructive criticism with out
design which no current members had anything to do with  - it had been up
for a LONG time.
3> Serve as a reminder to people to keep an eye on things when the WX turns
bad.
4> Satisfy the collective interest of the group given the subject matter of
the reflector.

Website is http://www.skyviewradio.net - you can see some before pics of
said tower.

Chuck / W3YNI


On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 11:21 AM, Richards <jruing at ameritech.net> wrote:

> I think you need to consider the tremendous force placed on the
> subject guy wire when the tree hits it - even before the guy
> breaks, and then I would figure there would be some backlash
> after it breaks, and that would be an unusual and not typical
> set of forces, also.   Plus the really strong wind on the tower as
> this all happens.    Lots of extraordinary forces in odd directions
> all at once.
>
> So would think all bets are off as to tower wind handling  - there would
> be all these extraordinary forces going on all of a sudden, and then
> the guy wire breaks...
>
> So I guess I can see Pete's point.
>
> =========================  K8JHR  =====================
>
> Pete Smith wrote:
>
>> I don't agree - my Rohn 25 would almost certainly fold just like that,
>> above the second guy station, if the wrong top guy failed in a high wind,
>> and it is well within ratings.
>>
>>  ==================================================
>



-- 
=====================================
Charles L. Mills
Westmoreland Co. ARES EC
Amateur Radio Callsign W3YNI
Email: w3yni1 at gmail.com