Hi Mike,
I feel your pain. At my qth in Western CT, (in Newtown) about 12 miles from
the NY border, I am in very dense forest and my property is next to ~ 160+
acres of what used to be unspoiled land – 3/4 of which will now be used for
housing; but fortunately the 40+ acres not being used abuts my property. It is
primarily ledge with sharp rocks jutting up everywhere and ravines, ledges,
holes, stumps and all manner of dangers. And all the animals of every type
live here – which is wonderful, until you go walking deep into the woods. The
deer are everywhere, literally. They are far more populous than squirrels.
Possibly only chipmunks are more populous than deer which are feeding the
coyotes well. Between that, the insanely abundant deer ticks, various mosquito
borne illnesses and all types of poisonous plants, it is a challenge to do
safely do antenna work with wires. After every windstorm, nature has pruned
tens of thousands of trees and the rotted ones find their way to my antenna
radials, and antenna wires. After several years, I completely gave up on
beverages and keeping them up – it was impossible. And if the wires didn’t
come down, the critters at the coax in numerous spots. I now just accept that
2 full weeks out of every year will be spent fixing, rebuilding and restringing
wires in the woods. And many things have to be fixed multiple times as the
trees don’t fall where you want them. ;-(
I have gotten smarter through the years. I would never consider using fishing
line to hold up wires. Way too easy to break or tangle here. I use #36 twine.
#18 is too fragile but #36 holds up well, generally better than the pvc coated
antenna and radial wires. Yes, you can see the twine – but that also means
that you won’t walk into it – and the deer see it too and avoid it, although in
general I have the radials high enough off the ground the deer could not reach
them unless they sprout wings. :-) The twine supports small trees and big
branches pretty well. I use #14 solid copper for all of my radials and I make
and solder a small loop in the end of each radial and the twine gets knotted to
that. It almost never breaks now.
The bigger problem for me is the weight of ice which breaks the tree branches
and tears down the antennas. With an average of more than 6 ice storms per
year at my qth, that is the biggest problem.
I did an enormous amount of chainsawing and brush clearing this winter and
removed many previously offending trees – putting up some of my wire antennas
should be easier in the future. We will see. People who live in mostly
treeless areas of the country have absolutely no idea how complex and
frustrating it is to erect and maintain wire antennas in a forest!
Trees are both a blessing and curse at my qth!
73
Bob KQ2M
From: Mike Smith VE9AA
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2017 12:57 PM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] Deer are a PITA but Trees are great - REMEMBER
I just spent the last 2 hours out in the woods during antenna season (ie:
blustery wind, subzero cold, ice to slip on but no leaves on the trees)
What was I doing you say? … Repairing 26 out of my 28 raised radials on all
my wire 4-sq arrays in prep for contest season. Only one wire itself was
broken (I use fencing wire) but all the ends that attach to supports were
broken.
I accept Mother Natures wrath with some of my radials being broken due to
swaying trees and falling widow-makers and don’t give it a second thought…
It’s almost a ritual just to do the yearly repairs. HOWEVER the friggin’
deer here are relentless ! It’s no exaggeration to say we generally go no
more than 1 or 2 days w/o seeing deer either in the back 40 or crossing the
road near our house. Two have been hit within 100’ of my driveway this fall
alone.
I found radials up and over trees, going in the wrong directions, down under
big rocks and one was wrapped around a tree twice!.....at one point when I
got to the end of a particular 80m radial I thought for sure I’d find a dead
deer at the end – LOL….but he must have finally got away….or maybe the
cougar that was reported here 2 months ago got him.
Last year when I installed all these 4-squares I got the (not so) bright
idea I would use that oiled hemp string to go between the ends of the
radials and the nearest tree. Well…..it was true….hemp is aesthetically
pleasing (can’t see it from the house_) but definitely not deer proof.
There was a radial here and there, which even had old limbs of trees on them
where the hemp was NOT broken, so I can only imagine the deer chew on the
stuff or something – HI !
I have 2 repairs still left to do (the most difficult) where the (wire)
verticals themselves came down.(Mother Nature, not deer) One of the 160m
ones is always tough to get up over a couple trees and I don’t look forward
to the task. For now, I have repaired all the radials with more hemp, but
am contemplating doubling them up with 40lb test fishing line. I don’t
really want to go to ¼” nylon as I could see it from the house and road.
I really don’t want to raise them up from the 4-5’ they are all at now to
something higher as I’ll have to reengineering all the coax phasing lines
and the locations of the bases of all the verticals, re-tweak all the SWR’s
etc.
I guess I just like to complain ;-)………
It could be worse….I COULD be living in downtown Vancouver or NYC or London
with no land and no trees.
Thank God for New Brunswick, Canada and our wonderful trees !
At this time of year, besides fallen wires and trees, we should also
remember the fallen in the World Wars so that we all can enjoy the life we
lead today.
For now I’ve put on a fresh warm hoodie, (Ironic that it says “Newfoundland
& Labrador”, not “New Brunswick”), brewed a cup of Tim Hortons coffee and am
thankful for what I do have.
Mike VE9 Arborist Arborist !
p.s.-can’t/won’t do ground radials….steep incline in the woods on the side
of an old farm field, so it’s rocky, covered in leaves and the deer hooves
would get caught up in them anyways.
Mike, Coreen & Corey
Keswick Ridge, NB
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