Hi John,
ICE STORMS SUCK! We have already had THREE in the past month at my QTH in
Western, CT. I HATE them!
One occurred the week before CQWWCW and then we had an all-day ice fog! Five
days later, I spent more than an hour with a utility knife,
carving the ice off the elements, the element clamps and the boom of a 10 meter
Yagi that I was rebuilding and mounting on the
tower on the afternoon before the 10 meter contest. The ice was so hard (the
high temps had been mostly in the teens that week) that
several of the razor blades broke!
Most well-built and well-supported antennas will survive up to about 1” of
radial ice unless it is also windy, and
when we occasionally get that awful combination, I have learned not to look at
the antennas until afterwards.
Heavy icing plus wind can often be fatal for antenna elements and un-guyed
booms. A foot or more of heavy wet snow is
actually just as bad because the wet snow clings to the antenna and
dramatically increases the surface area which then exponentially
increases the weight from the ice-loading as the snow continues to fall and
freezes on top of what is already there. Unfortunately we get that
pretty often here. Good Luck!
73
Bob KQ2M
Hope everyone's antennas are making it through the ice storm ok, or for those
of you in the northeast, good luck with it hits. Here in Lawton, OK we have
between 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ice on stuff. The MFJ 6 meter elements are sagging
pretty good, but they are very flexible and will snap right back after the
melting. The 2m beam looks ok so far. The streets are ok but a few tree
branches are down as well.73 John AF5CC
Bob Shohet, KQ2M
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