[TowerTalk] Temporary Guys

[K8RI on TT]

On 4/2/2011 1:30 AM, John Crovelli wrote:
> Warning:  USING ROPE FOR TEMPORARY TOWER GUYING CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH.   SUDDEN GUY SYSTEM FAILURES CAN CAUSE SERIOUS INJURY AND EVEN DEATH.    WHEN WORKING ON TOWERS DO NOT TAKE SHORTCUTS.  THINK TWICE BEFORE TAKING ANY ACTION THAT COULD PUT YOUR LIFE UNNECESSARILY IN HARMS WAY (CAPS used for emphasis).
>
> Hope I've gained your attention.  This is a terribly serious subject.  Comments posted on TT this week may have lead some less experienced or knowledgeable readers to believe using rope for guying is OK.  Well, its not OK.....not at all OK in my opinion.

First, sorry you were hurt, but glad for a rapid recovery and I do agree 
with most of what you say.

Like Gary your accident narrative raises some questions.  What kind of 
rope?  You said it had been used many times. How old was the rope and 
how much use had it had? You were in the process of raising something up 
the tower, was it going straight up the side, with the rope coming down 
the tower to a pulley at the base, or was there some side pull.  How 
many people were pulling on the rope to the gin pole?

Quality rope of sufficient strength that is inspected prior to use is 
used in mounting climbing and for temporary guys safely on relatively 
small towers.

As I'm never more than 35' from permanent guys and I never used them for 
anything other than tower assembly or disassemble (and a guy 
replacement) they are unlikely to have much of a load (other than 
tension) on them.

Regardless of the type of material used for temporary guys and tower 
work, the users/workers must be knowledgeable about what they are doing 
and the risks involved.  Although many hams treat climbing with a 
cavalier attitude, it is dangerous.  I feel far more comfortable on my 
45G than I do on a 25G and I feel far more comfortable on MY 25G than I 
do the typical 25G or ham tower. More than once I have recommended just 
dumping the whole works over instead of trying to disassemble it as I 
considered the tower in question to be unsafe for climbing. Dangerous 
would be a better word than unsafe.

I prefer wire rope for temporary guys and I *personally* (this is not a 
recommendation) do not like EHS as temporary guys.  The reason is EHS is 
heavy. Very heavy and weight plus height = potential energy.  A properly 
tensioned guy has a LOT of energy.  IF they break or come loose due to a 
poor connection they can be deadly. Tension, stretch, and catenary *all* 
add to the potential for mayhem should the guy break or disconnect.

Yes I've been on a tower when a permanent steel guy broke. A tractor ran 
into the guy anchor. Only the one guy broke and the anchor end almost 
made it up to me. To say it was... well... exciting would be an 
understatement.  I had both arms and both legs wrapped around the 70' 
level (give or take) of a small tower  while trying to grab the harness 
release and hollering at the top of the lungs to the tractor driver who 
couldn't hear me anyway. Other than a LOT of shaking the tower stood.

Over the years I've seen 25G and TV type towers guyed with 1/4" and I 
believe it was 5/16" EHS.  They guying system on these towers overloaded 
the towers before anything was installed.  It only takes a few minutes 
to calculate the additional vertical force put on a tower from the 
weight and tension of each guy and oversize guys put tremendous load on 
a tower.  From past experience I've found it all too common. Of course 
I've found many guy installations that were also insufficient, from a 
size, and installation approach too.  The typical wrong step and most 
common is to just wrap the guy (what ever material) around the tower leg 
instead of using guy brackets.  The brackets transfer the load to the 
entire tower while the typical approach may put most of the side load on 
a single tower leg.

Were it not for the cross bracing the load from a single guy could be 
sufficient to bend that leg which is another reason to make sure all 
tower sections are straight. Small towers tend to take a set and 
particularly so if the guys are not all properly tensioned. This is even 
more of a problem when inexpensive TV or light duty towers are used.

Sorry I digressed a bit from temp guys.

73

Roger (K8RI)