[TowerTalk] Guying a tower....Heresy to follow.....

[brahmangou at aol.com]

I must be a heretic on tower building. If I were an engineer, I'd probably  
still be designing my first tower. I can see stress tensioning the guys on  
a 600' commercial tower, anyone can, but on 50' or 60' of Rohn 25 I really 
do  not see the need to get wrapped around an axle over it. In the older 
catalogs,  40' was self supporting. It wasn't until the lawyers got involved 
that it had to  be guyed at 20 through 40 feet. 
 
I have 8 towers up at this time from 20 to 80 feet. I guy my towers when  
they are at 50' and above. To be honest, I have lost 2 towers. When Hurricane 
 Ike went directly over my place a tree snapped and fell across the guy 
wires to  those 2 towers and brought them down.  They might still be standing 
without  the guys...never know. Also I only put one beam on a tower, mainly 
to  keep a clean pattern. If one's intent is to stack 4 el 40m beams, guy 
away by  all means.
 
My thoughts, as wrong as they may be, are that the guys on a 60' tower only 
 need to be tight enough to keep the tower vertical. I've never pulled a 
guy wire  more than hand tight on a turnbuckle. What would be the need to 
apply  much  more vertical and horizontal stress on a tower? If the tower flexes 
 one inch in a strong wind the guy wire on the windward side will tighten 
and  apply the necessary force to stop the tower movement. The middle guy  
wires only need to be snug enough to keep the center sections of the  tower 
from doing the hula.
 
Just my observations on tower guying after 3 hurricanes.
 
Marty Haley AB5GU