On Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:18:04 -0500, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


"Bruce L. Bergman (munged human readable)" wrote:

On Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:13:42 -0500, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:
"RogerN" wrote in message

I found some big game scales online in the $30 range for 300lb
digital or 440 pound dial, I will probably get one of those for
tensioning my guy wires for the antenna tower. According to the
rules of thumb for my 1/8" wire rope I need to tension the guy wires
to 170lbs.

The elderly British radar boffin who taught the ham radio class at
MITRE 'invited' us to his house to see his station and work on his
antenna. I'm pretty sure he said that the guy lines didn't have to be
tensioned, just the slack taken up.

Small towers it isn't all that critical, as long as they are tight and
the tower is straight vertical - Very Hard on the mast if the guys are
tensioned unevenly making it bend like a banana.

I would rig the digital scale in one of the three guys at the bottom
level to get 170 Pounds tension, then pluck the guy wire and note the
tone of the "Ping" that will correlate with length and tension. Get a
Guitar Tuner or microphone/pickup and a Frequency Counter if you want
to be pedantic.

Then take the tension scale out of the wire and reassemble the
thimbles and turnbuckle, tap with a wrench, and "Tune" all the guys at
that level to the same note. Done.

Repeat for the second, third, (fourth...) sets of guy wires attached
higher up on the mast.


And hope that an Airforce jet doesn't clip one of the guy wires.
It's happened at least once. A small UHF TV station on the east coast
of Florida lost the top of their tower that way and it 'went dark',
rather han rebuild. That was about 20 years ago.
After Transport Canada spent MEGA-bucks on tree trimming/clearing for
the secondary approach at our local airport, I made the comment on how
much we had improved the reception on a certain whip antenna dead on
centerline and about 4000 feet from the end of the runway. A lot of
people got exited very quickly - no one had even noticed it, they had
been so busy looking at trees.