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Practical_Antenna_Handbook_0071639586

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C h a p t e r 2 9 : T o w e r s 673<br />

Figure 29.8 Typical screw anchor.<br />

Screw anchors suitable for modest amateur tower installations can often be installed<br />

by hand, by screwing them into the ground with a long pinch bar or other strong steel<br />

rod threaded through the eye of the rod. But many tool rental outfits have gasoline-Â<br />

powered drivers that make the job easier. Another “glittering generality”: The harder it<br />

is to insert the screw anchor, the harder it will be for stressed guy wires to pull it out.<br />

Whether screw anchors or concrete pedestals are used, it is critically important to<br />

apply only longitudinal forces to the anchor rods, which have relatively little strength<br />

off-Âaxis. (Some commercially available rods can be bent sideways by hand!) Each guy<br />

rod should be installed at an angle that makes the combined force on it from all attached<br />

guy wires as close to perfectly in line with the axis of the rod as possible; typically, if the<br />

guy wires attached to various heights on the tower are all tensioned to the same specification,<br />

the angle of the rod should be equal to the average angle of the guy wires—<br />

typically in the 45-Âdegree range. Very little more of the rod than just the knuckle or<br />

attachment eyelet should be sticking up beyond the concrete pad or out of the earth.<br />

Failure to follow these rules will subject the anchor to the same kind of stresses discussed<br />

previously in conjunction with the steel post anchor.<br />

Each and every guy wire should have a turnbuckle at its lower end, just above the<br />

guy anchor. Two special tools are extremely helpful for proper tensioning of guy wires:<br />

• A come-Âalong for maintaining a temporary tension in a guy wire while securing<br />

the wire<br />

• A Loos tension gauge for tensioning the guy wires following installation

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