The repeater site of N4KHQ repeater in north Georgia fell this past
Sunday. The repeater is located on top of Biskey mountain. The tower
fell due to extreme icing and winds that followed. The failure point was
the guy anchors. One guy anchor was pulled out of the ground and ended up
30' from where it was buried. There was so much ice on the guy wires that
when they hit the ground, a trench as made by the impact. The tower was
not Rohn. It was a 20' per section tower (very beefy) with 1/4" steel
guys every 50' (from memory).
The word I get is that the anchor was dug with a backhoe and that the
aprox dimensions of the concrete was 3 X 4 X 2.5H feet. It appears that
they were not back filled (the concrete was at the surface). They also
seemed to have made a mistake by putting the guy anchors out only 90' from
the tower. This less that 50% of the tower height.
Two other towers also fell less than 500' from this tower. I have not
checked why they fell yet. Power poles (many) were also snapped in two
and just about every tree looked like a helicopter had flown upside down
and given them a trim job.
BTW... this site is less than 10 miles from the W4AN QTH but at a MUCH
greater altitude. I had climbed this tower one time and even on a very
calm day it was windy there.
73
Bill - W4AN
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