SmartGuy ™ Design Service

You can save money on guyed towers!

Guy wires on AM towers, or towers near them, must be broken up with multiple insulators to prevent reradiation of AM energy and other bad impacts on AM operation. This can hit construction budgets hard. Our new SmartGuy ™ design service controls these costs and can save big money!

Problem:

Many of the insulators installed in guyed tower systems are simply unnecessary in the real world! But, every year, many thousands of dollars are spent needlessly on guy wire insulators for lack of adequate analysis alternatives.

Conventional designs specify guy insulators adjacent to the tower, at the guy anchor, and at intervals of 1/8 wavelength or less. This does not present a problem on electrically small towers or very lightweight towers with few insulators and small diameter guy wires. However, it is a significant problem on larger towers from both an expense and a mechanical standpoint.

WARNING!

Failure to install guy insulators can be very expensive!

A number of cell towers have been installed near AM stations without proper analysis of AM protection requirements. When caught by the AM stations, complete replacement of uninsulated guy systems was required – a costly and time-consuming remedy.

Every tower should be evaluated for AM protection regulatory compliance at the design stage. LBA offers complete AM protection services, including free site screening tools.

Guy wire diameters for typical 300 to 400-foot cellular towers can range between 1/2 and 7/8 inch. On tall towers, as for FM and TV, guy diameters can range upward to 3 inches or so. Conventionally, from 20 to 100 guy insulators may be required. The installed cost of high quality insulators can range from $100 to thousands of dollars each. Thus, typical costs to insulate a tower may range from under $10,000 to over several hundred thousand dollars!

Solution:

The requirement for insulators is a function primarily of tower height, frequency and operating environment. By properly identifying these factors and applying modern numerical analysis techniques to them, LBA can identify the actual types and spacings of insulators needed, providing the required performance. We call this analysis, and the customer service, “SmartGuy ™”.

SmartGuy ™ results in a recommendation of the type and location of guy wire insulators for the approval of the customer’s structural engineer. Our convenient service can also furnish all insulators and hardware that will be needed to install the designed guy insulator system.

Two recent analyses demonstrate the savings potential. Two 300-foot cell towers were analysized to achieve protection of nearby AM stations operating on 640 kHz and 1490 kHz, respectively. Including analysis costs, the net savings at 640 kHz was about $1,000. For the 1490 kHz case, the saving was about $5,000. Another study of a 1200-foot tower indicated savings of nearly $300,000!