I also saw a fire start by an antenna arcing to wood, but not a tree. While in
the USAF stationed at Goose Bay, Labrador, I made friends with a VO2 who worked
for the Canadian version of the FCC (DOT, at that time). Amongst other neat
stuff, they ran a TTY link to Frobisher Bay on some VLF freq which escapes me.
The TX ran 10KW to open wire feeders to a antenna coupling circuit (large
inductors / capacitor) housed in a small wooden box at the base of a rhombic
pole. A nail had worked its way out of the floor of the box, just close enough
to a high-voltage point on one of the matching components and drew an arc. The
nail obviously got hot enough to set the wood alight. After a while, the
station manager noticed the TX was not happy and checked the feed lines to see
the tuning house on fire.
Barry - W1HFN
ex VO2HA op
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|