Hi David,
I have used the dampening rope in every single element of my 11 Hygain Yagis
(105CA/155CA/205CA) at my extremely windy hilltop qth. I have never lost an
element or element tip and I believe that is from the combination of using the
dampening rope held on by the element endcap plus the fact that I DOUBLE
hoseclamp every telescoped element section. (I replaced all the Hygain element
clamps with Stainless Steel hoseclamps). I then generously taped over every
hoseclamp with Scott’s 33 electrical tape. What I did is a lot of extra time
and energy and expense and it has been worth every penny since I have never had
a single failure in 18 years since I put up my first tower and 105CA.
My qth and all antennas have survived two tornados (F0 and F1), the 110 mph
gusts of Hurricane Sandy and 85 mph gusts of Hurricane Irene and countless
violent Thunderstorms, Nor’easters and icestorms. I am 100% certain that would
not have been possible without the use of the dampening ropes/endcaps,
replacing and DOUBLE hoseclamping (with stainless steel hoseclamps) each
telescoped element piece and taping over the hoseclamps.
My thinking was that the cost of an extra $50 and two hours work per antenna on
the ground for these items is nothing compared to the time, energy and hassle
of losing a piece of or an entire element before or during a contest or when
the wx precludes taking them down to fix them.
73
Bob KQ2M
From: David Aslin G3WGN
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2017 10:22 AM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] HyGain 155CA dampening rope
Mindful of Steve's 'Prime Directive' which suggests I absolutely should use the
dampening rope in my recently acquired used 155CA, what is the experience of
the TowerTalkian brains trust of the need for the rope in a 155BA/CA at a
relatively exposed site?
73, David G3WGN M6O
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