[TowerTalk] Phillistran

[Chuck Smallhouse]

A story for those of you using Phillistran cable for guying a tower.

I was talking to a ham that lives in far N. CA, in area that is 
subject to wildfires.  A couple of years ago the area had a bad 
wildfire that moved in the direction of his QTH, in a somewhat rural 
area.  Even though the area around his home was quite well cleared, 
they couldn't save his workshop where most of his test equipment and 
ham equipment was located.

When he returned after a mandatory evacuation and surveyed the damage 
, he found that not only was his ham shack destroyed, but also his 
guyed tower had fallen over.   It turned out that he had guyed it 
using Phillistrand and that the fire had burned the guys through and 
which resulted in the catastrophic demise of his tower and beams.

I guess that the lesson to be learned is, to at least have the bottom 
sections of your  guys be of steel cable and not any type of 
flammable material, especially if you live in a wildfire prone area.

Chuck,  W7CS, with no Phillistrand guys .