[TowerTalk] Guy Wire Anchors

[Rob Atkinson]

>Lots of big towers and telephone poles are safely anchored by screwing something into the ground. I'd venture that very, very few wooden poles, even those giant ones, have any concrete involved at >all, and they have fairly large side loads, both static, and wind driven, from the wires and line equipment.
>

It's ridiculous to draw an equivalence between a lattice tower
properly resting on a pier and pin with a telephone pole, that is
solid wood, and in the ground 10 feet in a tight hole made with an
auger.   Wood as a material behaves in a completely different manner
under stress.    Phone pole guying is usually done to counter the pull
of power cables at the end of a line or when there's a change in
direction.  Otherwise wood poles are usually unguyed.  A tower on a
pin has to be guyed just to remain vertical.   A wood pole won't
collapse from being sunk into the ground.  A tower will unless it is a
short stub

73

Rob
K5UJ