Tower questions

[distortion]

I picked up my tower yesterday, and have been sorta planning some things.

The manual states I need 72' for the distance from guys to tower on my tower.. is it possible to do this at 64' with the loss of a little wind resistance?

Where I live 2 locals have towers up.. one has a 90' with guy wires like 25 feet away, and the other has a house bracket, and no guys at all on an 80'.. on a one story house. Both of these towers have been up as long as I've been alive.

However, I'm a little more paranoid than that, lol.

I just basically want to get to at least 90' tower.. preferably 100', but I'll cope with 90'.

I will be using the guy brackets, and have plans of just one 5 element, possibly upgrade to 8 element l8r.

It has a t2x rotor, and will be in a 3x3x3 pad.. I had considered maybe sticking another foot or two underground if that'd help with the tower sturdiness.. but I don't really think it would since the prob would be the need for the steadiness at the top.

The guys would of course be at 28', 57', and 85' per the manual If I go 90 or 31, 63, 95 if I go 100'.

I'm a tower noob, has anybody successfully ran slightly less guy distances than what is recommended? FWIW: I am in a low wind area.. altho, I'm sure at the top of the tower, any wind will be significant.

Thanks,
Josh

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Any professional riggers I have worked with in the broadcast business suggest going by the tower manufacturers specs. Having said that, when no specs are available the standard rule is the guys are spaced 2/3 of the tower height. For a 100 foot tower the anchor points would need to be 66 feet from the tower.Your desire to use 64 foot spacing is no problem.The vertical spacing you want to use sounds about right. Go for it and congrats on the tower.

 

[Master Chief]

QRN covered it perfectly so no need for me to add my experience to the mix. As far as being a "noob", it appears you have done your due diligence (and still are by virtue of your post), and I'm impressed!

I wish more people would ask questions and shut their mouths long enough to learn! Especially CB'ers; they always want it all but are unwilling to pay for it!

Have fun with your new tower and look into guy "grips" instead of guy clamps!

 

[distortion]

Thanks for the compliment's.. when a tower could fall on my house and/or on someone or something I own, I feel a little research is in need. Unfortunately I still barely grasp the amazing amount of variables that there are when planning a tower for one's particular intended use and limitations.

This is good news though, as the extra 10-20 ft is much needed due to my low elevation! 20 ft would be especially helpful, under normal circumstances 20 ft may not be that big a difference for your average person, but when you have half your street 50'-60' higher than you, then structures and obstacles on that property rising upwards, being able to clear all of those will make a huge difference in the strength of my signal in certain directions!

http://www.normsfab.com/guy_brackets_and_torque_arms.htm

This is the setup I have currently have.. I got all the pieces with the tower to do it like that.

What exactly are the grips, and what are their cost and benefits?

Thanks again,
Josh

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

www.texastowers.com/mischard.htm

Fourth item down the page. They are also called preforms. They twist around the dead end of the guy wire and form the finished end. You loop it through the anchor point and twist it around the guy wire end and that's all there is too it. Just watch which way you twist it as it must follow the twists in the guy wire. You have seen these items on utility pole guy anchors I am sure.

 

[Master Chief]

What exactly are the grips, and what are their cost and benefits?

Instead of looping your guy wire and clamping it with a cable clamp, they have coiled "grips" that wrap around the wire and hold it in place. Its much like chinese finger cuffs with the way they grip a straight piece of cable.

As the cable comes off the tower, you wrap a gripp around the straight piece of cable and the grip loop attaches to the turnbuckle. They work great and are not too expensive!

http://www.preformed.on.ca/guy grip dead ends.htm
http://twe.myweb.hinet.net/new_page_14.htm

 

[W5LZ]

The only suggestion I would make is to follow the manufacturer's directions -fairly- closely. If that means a foot or two one way or the other, it probably won't be a big problem.
Putting the guys at a closer distance than recommended means that there will be more stress on those guys. Select the guy cable accordingly. Bigger is better to some extent, and that means with all the hardware involved with it. For towers in the 100 foot range, 'EHS' guy cable is the only viable one and certainly doesn't hurt on 'shorter' towers. 'Over-doing' a tower is NEVER as easy/bad as 'under-doing' one.
- 'Doc

 

[distortion]

Yes,

I had planned on using the 3/16" EHS in that texas towers add. Do you think that would be sufficient?

I actually already have the clamps, turnbuckles, and thimbles.. He gave me 2 clamps for each guy wire in the event one comes loose or has a problem. I can see it might be worth purchasing the grips though for ease of use.. This is a good suggestion, I think.. Looks to be much easier for the novice.

Thanks a ton guys,
Josh

 

[Gearhead]

I used This stuff texastowers.com/philly.htm for my tower. Worked great. It's a little pricey, but well worth it IMO. It's light weight, easy to work with, and invisible to RF. I used thinbles and clamps on mine, but the grips would be better, and are recomended by the company.
As far as guy ratings, spacing, etc, you can't go wrong with rohn's guidlines. They pretty much overkill everything, to ensure that it will never come down. Safer is always better.