I have seen that on dishes we have on customer utility poles, if the grain is like a corkscrew not straight. I imagine it would be worse on a 70 ft pole, probably offsetting that you have a better quality pole. It does seem to be humidity that does it, maybe plus temperature. It seems to get a little better over time, but I honestly think that’s because we finally hit an alignment that is midway between the extremes, rather than the pole stops twisting.
Not sure if you could restrain it somehow, I suspect it will generate a lot of torque to fight whatever restraints you put on it. Maybe you could rig something to keep the mount straight even as the pole twists. My guess you either find a compromise alignment, or make at least 2 trips out there each year. From: Mark Radabaugh Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2016 6:46 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Wooden pole twisting We have a similar situation. The pole is pretty old and it still twists with the seasons so I don’t know that waiting is going to help you. I suppose you could put a torque arm bracket on the pole and a couple of guy wires ;-) Mark On Sep 13, 2016, at 4:44 AM, Adam Moffett <[email protected]> wrote: I've got a 70' (61' AGL) class 3 pole with an AP and backhaul on it. It's been in the ground about 3 years now. This past spring we noticed the signal drop slowly on the backhaul over the course of a month. A climber went up and adjusted it by about 9 degrees, but he said the mount was tight when he got there. This past month the RSSI on the backhaul has been slowly dropping again. The humidity here tends to shoot way up in the summer and drop in the winter. I'm supposing this beast must be twisting as it soaks up moisture and then dries out again. Is this a problem that might diminish as the pole ages, or is there perhaps any possible remediation? I guess the permanent fix is a real tower or a steel pole, but I guess I'm hoping that one of you old phone guys knows some magic trick. Seems like if there was a wire attached to this pole, that a 9 degree twist would put some wicked tension on it.
