[TowerTalk] Mast/tower design close in guyed by shrouds and spreaders?

[Chuck Smallhouse]

For towers of moderate height, 35' to 45', I have successfully 
supported Rohn 45 and 55 towers with quite large 2m EME arrays (8 or 
more 28 ' long yagis and their supporting structures) by using struts 
not guy wires.

I use 24' lengths of the top rail material used on chain link 
fences.  It's about 1 7/8" in OD.  I weld up saddle type mounts out 
of 2 x 1/8" flat steel plate/strips ( available in 3' to 4' lengths 
at larger HW stores)  single holes are drilled in the saddles' 
vertical sides to bolt the top an bottom the 34' rail and the bottom 
ends of the strip is drilled to accept the proper size U bolt for the 
towers leg.  The saddles for the bottom of the rail, the bottom strip 
is drilled to accept about 5/8" x 1' to 11/2' J bolts on each end 
that will be imbedded in a cube of concrete, about 1' x1' x 
11/2',  these are placed out from the bottom leg of the tower about 6 
or more feet away.   These each provide bracing, "guying", in both 
compression and tension.  Water pipe could also be used and lengths 
coupled together for a longer length, but would be much heavier.

Standing on the  top of the tower with and without these "braces" 
proves the rigidity that they provide, even on a Rohn 55.

Chuck,  W7CS