In a message dated 9/12/02 7:32:25 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
K4MK@triad.rr.com writes:
> I have one 100 ft. tower that was professionally installed and one 130
> ft. tower ( both 25G ) that I and other hams installed. In all the
> years that I have had towers I have always checked the guys " by hand "
> to confirm the tension appeared to be even and relatively tight. Last
> week I bought a Loos tension gauge
From Champion Radio ( <A HREF="http://www.championradio.com";>
www.championradio.com</A> ) - thanks!
> and started checking; so far, the
> maximum tension I have found is about 5 % of the rated guy wire
> strength. It is my understanding that the recommended tension should be
> about 10 %. Based on that, it appears that all of my guys are too
> loose.
That's based on 70 degrees F. Guys will loosen as the temperature
increases and the guys expand and they will tighten as the temp decreases and
the guys contract so the measured values will change also.
> Obviously, " eyeballing " and checking tension by hand did not, at least
> in my case, come close to achieving recommended values, whether done by
> a " professional " or a " ham-ster ".
If you were that close with "eyeballing" - congratulations! You're a
helluva lot closer than any I've ever seen.
If you're within 5%, I could live with that. One of the important things
is that the guys are all equalized and you're ensuring that that's the case.
Cheers,
Steve K7LXC
TOWER TECH
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