[TowerTalk] Can?t add egg insulator...

[Ed Sawyer]

Stan, K5GO said "At risk of purists saying absolutely not, if I were going
to put up just 30 feet of 25G tower and didn't have all the proper materials
to insulate the guy wires and guy it as would normally be done, I wouldn't
hesitate for a moment to put two levels on that small tower using 3/8"
diameter polyester (Dacron) low stretch rope. The antenna will blow apart
first eliminating a potential problem and rope doesn't rust."

 

I would second Stan's suggestion for 2 reasons: 1) a spider beam is going to
collapse anyway under a really strong Hurricane wind and 2) whenever someone
says "rooftop" tower, what they really are saying is "how strong are my
anchor points anyway?".  This is all about the ability of the guy anchors to
support the pull of the tower in wind.  Rarely is any roof connection system
up to the task.  By support with a strong rope, you kill many birds with one
stone and you likely don't add any weakness vs the anchor points.

 

I had a 60 ft tower of 25G support by 2 sets of rope guys for 5 years as my
160M vertical.  It was heavy rope and there was a plate under the tower.  It
was purposely not permanent because it was on a farmers land.  I had to
remove it when the land sold.  Now I have 2 T top wire verticals - phased.

 

Ed  N1UR