[TowerTalk] Learning from Tragedies

[Jim W7RY]

There has got to be more to this story.

I have personal experience that Rohn 25, with a 2 element 40, and a TH6DXX
at the top will self stand at 120' with three sets of guys, when one
deadman is unhooked.
In other words, 3 sets (3 levels) of guys, on only 2 sides of the tower,
all tensioned to 400 Lbs each. I had to cut one of the base legs to get it
to fall over.

1 yard+ of concrete in the base.

What a tragedy when this happens to someone on someone elses tower. I had
it happen to a good friend in Spokane, K7VNT. May Tony rest in peace.


73
Jim W7RY




On Fri, Oct 12, 2018 at 12:26 PM Edward Sawyer <sawyered at earthlink.net>
wrote:

> I am sure that many of you have heard about a recent tower climbing death
> installing 70ft of Rohn 25G.  The details of the story made me think about
> my tower building processes and I am wondering how they compare with
> others.
>
> I personally have 70 ft of Rohn 45G and it is guyed at 35 and 70 ft.  I am
> not sure I would be comfortable with 70 ft of 25G guyed only at 35 and 70
> ft.  What are the thoughts of the group here?
>
>
>
> When I build towers, even with a fixed based set in concrete, I rope guy
> each section after 20 ft.  So when I am putting the 30 ft section on, my
> standing tower is rope guyed at 20 ft.  As I would be putting the first set
> of guys at 35 ft (if it were 45G), I would be looking at rope guys coming
> down from 20 ft and 30 ft levels and then would have the 35 ft guys
> available to me as I am clipped in at the 30 ft level after gin poling up
> the section with the 35 ft guys.
>
>
>
> Secure the permanent set of guys and then drop all the ropes.  My next
> section 40 - 50 ft would have rope guys I can access at 40 ft and those
> would be secured at the 50 ft level before moving the gin pole up to 50 ft
> and so on.
>
>
>
> It does not appear that the above method was used in this tragedy from the
> descriptions.  Obviously, if there was a catastrophic guy anchor failure,
> the above would not prevent that.  There is no mention of the guy anchors
> used.  Hopefully if it's a 2 guys system, earth anchors were not the
> choice.
>
>
>
> In the interest of honoring the event, I though a discussion of the tower
> stacking techniques of the community might be in order.
>
>
>
> Ed  N1UR
>
>
>
> A young Tennessee father of five is dead after the Amateur Radio tower on
> which he was working collapsed due to a guy anchor letting go.
> Thirty-year-old Ken Waddell was killed on September 29 while attempting to
> erect a 70-foot Rohn 25G tower on the property of Dale Darling, W9WBA, in
> Cookeville, Tennessee. A professional tower climber, Waddell handled the
> tower job on a freelance basis, rather than for his employer.
>
>
>
>
> According to media accounts, Waddell and Darling checked the new guy
> anchors
> in advance of putting up the tower. Waddell was getting ready to attach a
> second set of guys at 70 feet when a guy at the 40-foot level let go,
> taking
> him to the ground on the section where he was attached. He was the only
> person on the tower when it fell, and died at the scene
>
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