[TowerTalk] Rusty Guy Wires

[Steve Maki]

On taller towers (500' or more) we often see rustier hardware near the 
top then near the bottom. I always assumed that the air was more 
corrosive up there on average. Well I guess that must be a given :-) Not 
sure why that would be though.

-Steve K8LX

On 3/8/2014 4:04 PM, Donald Chester wrote:

> In recent years, the guy wires on my tower have become what may be
> dangerously rusty, and I plan to re-guy. The tower is 127' tall with
> four guy levels, one every 30 feet.
>
> The rust pattern is very interesting. The guys at the top two levels
> are far more rusty than at the bottom two, even though all the guy
> cable came from the same roll. I could probably get by with the
> original bottom sets of guys for many more years, but the top two
> definitely need replacing, sooner not later.
>
> The only reason I can possibly figure for the differences in the rust
> pattern is that the slope of the upper guys is much steeper, and
> water would tend to run down the the wire and stay in contact with
> the metal for longer, whereas the lower guys are closer to
> horizontal, enough that water would tend to drip off instead of
> running down the wire all the way to the end. The amount of rust is
> nearly the same on the top set and next one down, and nearly the same
> for the bottom set and next one up, but the difference between the
> second and third guy level is tremendous.
>
>
> Don k4kyv