KH7M recently described his experience with raised radials & vines in a
tropical paradise. This is a never ending problem at VR98BG & I'd swear
the things develop an immunity to whatever you spray them with (favorites
here are DDT & paraquat, which is even more scary when the villagers call
this stuff "medicine"). Cutting is the only solution.
The base of my vertical is 9m above ground & the radials are 1-2m above
ground at the far end. Those not tied off to neighboring houses invariably
get engulfed in short order & I find that a monthly attack with a
knife tied a bamboo pole helps keep them reasonably clear. About twice a
year the cheap rope I use to tie them up will break due to the UV & this
gives me a chance to drag the radial back in to clean them thoroughly (six
of the ten radials are made of 450-ohm punched twinlead for stub tuning &
the vines just love the stuff). Every weekend I shake each radial from the
antenna end to break off whatever manages to grow inbetween attacks with
the knife.
The problem I haven't found the right solution to yet is how to deal with
the bugs which crawl out of the jungle, up the radials & on to the roof of
the house. Only once have I seen them come up one radial & go down another
to give someone else a hard time.
73, VR98BrettGraham
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