[TowerTalk] Adding guys to self supporting towers

[K7LXC at aol.com]

>  Assuming one had a crank up tower made out of three 20  foot sections 
(nominally 50-55 feet fully extended), why would guying the  bottom 20 foot 
piece of the tower be a bad thing??  It would seem to an  under-educated 
mind 
that it would strengthen the tower. 
 
    Methinks that guying the bottom section does little  to nothing to 
"strengthen" the tower since the failure mode is one of the higher  sections 
when it's extended. I've never seen a crank-up that failed at the base  with 
all of the extended sections undamaged. A nested tower doesn't need  
additional strength. 
 
Cheers,
Steve    K7LXC
TOWER TECH