My Sky installation is wobbly at the top, and I have questions about installing guy wires.
The Sky sits atop a 10-foot schedule 80 PVC pipe attached to my children’s largely unused playset. The first two feet of the pipe are held with 3 brackets to one of the 2x4’s which once supported the playset’s canvas roof. The remaining 8 feet are unsupported, and it visibly tilts even with a light wind. I filled the pipe with sand before I mounted it, expecting that to provide more stability than it did; I suspect it’s top heavy from the Sky and its 8 batteries.
I’m considering a 3-ring guy wire mast clamp (Channel Master CM-9015 Adjustable Triple Ring Guy Wire Mast Clamp up to 2" inch Mast 3-Way Antenna M).
Will the clamp and metal guy wires create any significant risk of becoming a lightning rod? About 18 feet off the ground, the Sky is the tallest object in our yard (we’re in a 10-year-old neighborhood of single-story homes with few trees, all young).
Can I use a non-metallic material, such as nylon string, for the guy wire? Is there a non-conductive material that is weather-resistant and doesn’t stretch out over time?
Finally, instead of using a turnbuckle with rings (eyes) at each end, can I use hook-and-eye turnbuckles and hook them directly into the screw eye at the base of each guy wire, or is this not recommended?
I appreciate the feedback. I’m really out of my element here 
If you go with rope, check out a Dyneema line… it’s ultra low-stretch and UV stable. We use them for line on racing sailboats…
3 Likes
I just looked it up. The name was familiar because we might have some in our camping gear. My wife will love the savings… but not the tent collapsing in the wind next summer. Ha! Thank you for the suggestion.
I’m debating whether to stop throwing good money after bad and replace the PVC pipe with a 10-foot wooden rod or metal pipe. The forecast is 7 days of rainy and stormy weather.
1 Like
I use a steel pole with steel guy wires on top of my house. I have done for many years. I have extreme lightning strikes every summer sometimes hitting the ground within 50m of the house. The spikes from the lightning I think destroy my wiring to my weather stations as they only last a year or two. I have now installed a Sky onto an aluminium pole attached to my steel pole. Lightning sends out feeders and then jumps down where it wants to. I wouldnt think it would matter if it strikes your old swing. If I were you I wouldnt worry about the lightning, unless it hits you and I dont expect that you will be holding the pole? My guy wires are to a turnbuckle with a ring one end and a hook the other end. I attach my wire to the ring AND continue it loosely to the other side of where the hook will attach. This allows me to unhook the hooks but not loose the ends of the guy wires while I rotate the pole down to work on the station. However this setup currently vibrates which didnt matter until I had the Sky which reads vibrations as rain. So I will be replacing all my rusty wires and turnbuckles with stainless and building a vibration resistant mount for the Sky.
1 Like
And my pole is over 38 feet above ground level, on top of a headland, the highest point in the area.
This was extremely helpful - -and a little comforting. I replaced the PVC pipe today with galvanized steel. I didn’t add guy wires yet.
1 Like
