Aluminium Mast Guying Info

1)  Guy Plate Sets

There are two types of Guy Plate Sets:  

3-Hole and 4-Hole.

• Most Ham Radio installations seem to prefer the 3-Hole version, probably for cost-reasons.

• However most commercial installations opt for the 4-hole version, which is more reliable in high-wind applications.

Tip: if your QTH is prone to high winds, especially together with heavy snow or icing, use the 4-Hole version.  It costs a little more (more rope), but is much more reliable.

The plates are shown upside-down  (for clarity).   They mount with the  rings pointing DOWN.

Note:  These Guy Plate Sets enable rotating the entire mast with Spiderbeam Yagi antenna from the bottom, which is the preferred rotation solution.  

More Info:  H E R E

3)  GUY ROPE LENGTHS:

The table on the right shows two sets of lengths for guy ropes. 

You can increase the distance to the guy stake for even more strength but there is no point in placing the guy stake farther out than the height of the highest guy point.

The Spiderbeam mast models are shown across the top with a yellow background.

The distance to the ground stake is also shown with a yellow background.

The lengths shown for each individual guy rope is the actual distance between the guy plate and the guy stake (in Meters).  In practice you need to cut each rope 2m (6.6 ft.) longer than the length shown.

Lengths are shown for 3-direction and 4-direction guying.

At the bottom of each chart you see how many rolls of 6mm Polyester or 4mm Dyneema rope are required for each mast.

Since the table is a bit difficult to read online, I will include a downloadable version below.

Rope Thimble:

The rope thimble is excellent for protecting the rope from the sharp edges of the guy plate, but is more suitable for permanent installations.

The best way to fasten the ropt to the thimble is by using Rope Clamps.  However, we have been simply tying knots in the  rope for a dozen years now and I am unaware of any failure due to using this method.

Carabiner:

This is a better solution for portable installations because it can be attached or unattached quickly to the Guy Plate.

Purists will also use a Rope Thimble together with the Carabiner, but we simply attach the rope to the Carabiner by tying a knot.  The best knot is the Sheet-Bend.

Rope Clamp:

Rope Clamps come in many different sizes.  You must choose the correct size for the rope you are using (i.e., 4mm, 6mm, etc.).

Note: The 3mm Rope Clamps shown on the Spiderbeam web page are not suitable for use with the two types of guy rope that Spiderbeam sells.  It is for use with the 3mm Steel-Guy-rope, used in several commercial applications.

As stated above, we usually just use a Carabiner and tie the rope to the it using hte Sheet-Bend knot.