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[TowerTalk] Star guys vs rotating tower ?

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Subject: [TowerTalk] Star guys vs rotating tower ?
From: "Jim Thomson" <jim.thom@telus.net>
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2017 06:06:25 -0700
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Ok, heres something I dont get.    Star guy setups....  with 6 guy wires.  The 
idea is to reduce tower twist.    I can readily see that  vs a standard 3 guy 
wire ...per level setup.
Then we have folks with a rotating tower assy, whose guy wires essentially  
allow  for unlimited  tower twist.   The only thing I can see limiting the 
twist is  either the rotor at the bottom of the rotating tower,
and / or the  bearings at each rotating guy ring assy.   The folks with 
rotating towers typ load em up with yagis  from top to bottom.   All yagis are 
mounted to the same tower face, so you now have a TQ offset from 
boom to exact center of tower... which just  makes any TQ issues worse. 

It appears that a  rotating tower assy  is one giant,  100-200 ft tall 
driveshaft.   How much twist do you rotating tower owners see in a 40-75 mph 
windstorm ?  (and tower sitting there, not being rotated at the time).
Ok, what if no wind at all, nice sunny day, and you rotate  tower say 300 degs. 
  Do you see any twist when rotor initially engaged ?     IE: base of tower is 
turning, but very top of tower has not started to rotate..yet.

What am I missing here ?   Rotating towers  vs  star guys is from one extreme 
to the other.   One would think with a 100 ft rotating tower...and esp with a 
200 ft  rotating tower,  it would twist like a pretzel ? 
When I worked for the telco, the odd site would have star guys, if a guyed 
tower was used, and large diameter microwave dishes used.  Same deal, 6 guy 
wires used, with star guy assy just below the dish. 
In some cases,  a square tower was used, with 8 guys,  2 for each of the 4 x 
faces...and  4 x guy anchors  on the ground,  90 deg apart.    I can understand 
the telco application, the dishes had their side built up, and
they have an extremely narrow  main lobe.  With the sides of the dish built up, 
there is no side lobes.   For amateur HF,  its not an issue.   But tower twist 
is an issue.  Or is it a non issue ?   Obviously 65G will twist less than
25 G.   For this discussion, lets use  45 or  55G as  tower used in a typ 
rotating  setup.    

Jim   VE7RF
   
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