Yes it was a joy pulling my phillystran top guys up my 86 foot Rohn 45
tower, so are so light and quick to make instead of all that messing around
with insulators which I did for the lower set of guys. Lots of insulators
and big grips and cutting. That was hard on my fingers and wore out a pair
of gloves.
Mark N1UK
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger (K8RI)" <K8RI-on-TowerTalk@tm.net>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, 15 October, 2010 9:34 AM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] guy cable use.
>
>
> On 10/14/2010 8:35 PM, Richard Beckett wrote:
>> Can I use a non EHS cable to guy my Rohn tower.
> Sure
>> I purchased 3/16" steel
>> galvanized cable; Cooper Campbell #7000627 from a Lowe's hardware
>> store. It may be similar to aircraft cable, not sure. Can I use this
>> cable to guy my Rohn 25G tower to 70 feet.
> Sure
>
> BUT look up the strength of that cable and then look up 3/16 EHS. It's
> been my experience that most of this kind of cable only has a fraction
> of the strength of EHS. OTOH I've climbed commercial towers over 20
> years old guyed with "wire rope" using fine strands. OTOH they were 1"
> in diameter and the towers were a lot taller. I don't know what the
> tension was, but they'd ring like a tuning fork when struck with a
> wrench. The one tower must be at least 30 - 35 years old as I was
> climbing it 27 years ago
>
> Would I climb one using that as guy wire? Again the answer is; sure if I
> were still climbing towers.
>
> But then comes the question, would I want to use that as guy wire, or
> EHS for that matter. When hanging wire antennas from a tower that is
> guyed with metal guy lines they are going to have an effect on the
> antennas. Break them up with insulators and they will have less of an
> effect, but that can add quite a bit of work and may cost as much or
> more than the guy lines. I've climbed many a 90' ham tower guyed with
> 3/16 wire rope over the years and think it's fine for towers with small
> to medium tribanders or just wire antennas. HOWEVER you have to inspect
> it more often than EHS and it is definitely more fragile and susceptible
> to rusting than EHS which uses fewer, but larger strands of a stronger
> and more rigid alloy.
>
> I have a 100' of 45 G guyed with Phillystran at 3 levels. The lower two
> tier are guyed with 4000# test while the top tier is 6000# test and I
> have a relatively large and heavy array of antennas on top. I also have
> half wave sloping dipoles on 40 and 75, with a half sloper on 160.Due to
> a driveway and other clearance issues I had to go with elevated guy
> anchors which are monsters. The bottom 10' of each guy is 1/4" EHS.
>
> I do not like heavy guy lines. They have a deep catenary which "acts
> like" stretch. I know there are those who will argue this point but
> I've used EHS in the past and find the light weight Phillystran to give
> me a tower that is more steady than the EHS. The Phillystran, has a
> catenary so shallow it's difficult to see even when sighting down the
> guy line has more stretch than EHS, but that deep catenary "seems" to
> provide more give than the stretch in the Phillystran.
>
> I can coil up all 9 Phillystran guy lines and put them over one shoulder
> with out straining. It's all I can do to lift one of the top guy lines
> made of EHS in a coil. All of that weight is added to the vertical
> vector of the guy line tension and provides a substantial force on the
> bottom of the tower.
>> Note: I do not plan to use
>> anything but wire antennas at this time.
> To me that would be a good reason for using Phillystran. OTOH
> Phillystran is not cheap. Where the 3/16 wire rope is 20 or 30 cents per
> foot (it was cheaper at Ace Hardware than at Lowe's) Phillystran is
> currently $.99 to $1.39 a foot for HPTG 40001 (4000#) and HPTG 67001
> (6700#) respectively
> The 3/16 wire rope is probably on the order of 600-800# test. 3/16" EHS
> OTOH is 3,990# strength and costs 24 cents per foot in 500 foot
> coils.and weighs about 42#. As size goes up it gets heavy in a hurry.
> Also the strength of "wire rope" as found in hardware and discount
> stores varies widely, particularly the imported *stuff*. It's likely the
> hardware store can order the wire rope in different strengths. (with
> different prices) Wire rope is also available on-line with strengths
> close to that of EHS.
>
> 73 and good luck,
>
> Roger (K8RI)
>> Rich...
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> TowerTalk mailing list
>> TowerTalk@contesting.com
>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|