[TowerTalk] "Magic" length from tower to first insulator

[Jim Thomson]

Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2016 10:21:32 -0600
From: mntsdad53 <mntsdad53 at yahoo.com>
To: "john at kk9a.com" <john at kk9a.com>
Cc: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] "Magic" length from tower to first insulator


Just planning installation of my first ever towers so not much experience here. What is the reason for the "last ten feet" utilizing EHS instead of Phillystran?

Don Shelton, N0KGU

##  You can cut phillystran with a knife....and burn it in half  with a bic lighter.
A 10 yr old kid could easily bring it down.

##  on another note, the magic length from tower  to 1st insulator will be the 
distance of  2  pre-forms  back to back...with a couple of inches between em, and a 
short length of ehs, like 3 feet..with a pre-form on each end. 

##  I used I think  38-39-40 ft  for the spacing between  1st and 2nd insulators  on my guyed tower,
back in 1981.   But the  top 20 feet of tower  was  not guyed.  No big deal since it was 30 inches  across. 
Just a single hb  20m yagi at very top.  76 ft tower....guyed at  36 ft and  56 ft.   20 ft sections..with
bottom 4 ft in a block of concrete.   1/4  ehs used. 

##  3/8 fiberglass rod will also work instead of ehs.  But I  dunno if the grips are still available. 
Several towers  use  3/8  rod..and it works very well.   Philly works..and so does a free standing
tower.   Depending on height, by the time you price out philly, and all that goes with it, plus 
3 x  guy anchors, and  6-10 inch OD steel  tubes sunk into concrete  to make up the  guy anchor
assy... in some cases you may as well install a free standing tower like the  AN wireless variety
or the Trylon  super Titan series.      Then no guys to mess  with, and easy to install the various
ants. 

Jim  VE7RF