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[TowerTalk] Guyed self-supporters (was "Concrete suggestions")

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Guyed self-supporters (was "Concrete suggestions")
From: K3BU@aol.com (K3BU@aol.com)
Date: Wed Apr 16 20:47:05 2003
In a message dated 4/16/03 7:58:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
clewis@knology.net writes:

>  Depending on the angle
>  of the guys, these forces can be huge, often exceeding the vertical 
strength
>  of the tower. On the other hand, towers intended for guying are designed 
for
>  high vertical and very low lateral/bending loads.

That is nonsense!
If the guy wires can hold the load, the tower will be stressed less than if 
self-supporting. When you have self supporting tower, one side gets stressed 
on "pull" while the other side is stressed on "push," the angles are steep 
(legs) the forces are large. If you put the guy wire you are freeing the legs 
from "pull" and they share the load on "push" which is shared and less. Self 
supporting towers are usually heavier material and stronger than guyed 
towers. No way you can exceed vertical strength of the tower. Guy wires on 
such tower do not need to be tightened, some slack might be beneficial, 
allowing tower to do its job, and in case of excessive forces and bending, 
the guy wire will help. It is helpful to have the guy wire hanging down 
normally and in case of severe ice and wind load, hook it up to the anchor on 
the windy side. 
This is helpful especially when using rotatable towers (Big Bertha) heavily 
loaded with stacked arrays, where in windy situation system might get 
"excited" and start swaying. Guy would dampen the oscillations and help to 
carry the load. (Yea, Bertha will take big arrays, but there are always some 
who will push the envelope :-)

Yuri, K3BU
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