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Re: [TowerTalk] Getting a stuck wire antenna out of a tree

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Getting a stuck wire antenna out of a tree
From: Jim Brown <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Reply-to: jim@audiosystemsgroup.com
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2017 10:15:03 -0700
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
On 10/18/2017 6:30 AM, Jon Zaimes wrote:
Hire a tree climber to remove and re-install, using a rope with lower breaking 
strength than the wire. Then if it gets snagged again the rope should break not 
the wire if you pull on it.

Hi Jon,

I hire tree climbers to rig my high wires. They're not cheap -- $900 for a 6 hour day is the going rate. I'm lucky to get one end of a high dipole rigged in a day. If a wire or rope breaks, I get to hire them again, so I try to "safety" all of the mechanical connections in my antennas and use ropes that are less likely to break.

I had a 7/16-in Synthetic Textiles rope break in a storm last winter. So far, I've had climbers for two days, and the dipole is still on the ground -- they have one more tree to climb. The first day was removing the broken dipole from a big madrone and trimming the madrone back a lot.

I DO use a "mechanical fuse" as you suggest at the feedpoint of my 160M Tee vertical, which is also rigged between a pair of redwoods. All of my horizontal wires, including this one, have a weight on one end to allow for wind sway, but that can put mechanical stress on the feedpoint connection when wind increases tension on the horizontal wire and pulls the vertical wire upward. The fuse takes the form of mating "banana" connectors.

73, Jim K9YC

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