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Re: [TowerTalk] Mechanical weak link in leg of dipole

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Mechanical weak link in leg of dipole
From: Jim Brown <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Reply-to: jim@audiosystemsgroup.com
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2017 13:21:06 -0700
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Hi Steve,

How did you get ropes to support that wire up there? I'm guessing it wasn't easy. Rather than a mechanical fuse, most of us use strain relief in the form of a pulley and weight on one end. This also minimizes the chance that a wire or rope migh break in the wind. Every situation is different, of course. My high wires in trees are through a pulley on both ends. At one end, the rope is tied off, on the other end there's a weight. In my case, the weight is a water jug full of dry sand, about 90# (the wires are up 120 -140 ft, fed with RG-11).

73, Jim K9YC

On Fri,6/23/2017 12:38 PM, Steve65 wrote:
Hello all,

The south end of my 80-meter dipole runs among trees. The trees are higher than the antenna wire and have limbs which are above the dipole. Big limbs. The dipole is made of #14AWG THHN. It is supported at its southern end with about 40ft of 3/16in rope tied off in a tree.

One of the trees that is near the antenna is a large beech. One of its limbs broke off a few months ago and narrowly missed the antenna wire. I'm thinking about installing a mechanical weak link in this leg of the dipole that would break if one of the heavy limbs falls across the antenna wire.

Good idea? Bad idea?

What material would be a good choice for the weak link?

Thanks.

Steve, K8JQ
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