Chris, ZS8IR is still working on his 160 M antenna but the wx on Marion just
isn't cooperating. He told me today, that after the Battle Creek special
vertical had been damaged twice by gale force winds, he has been working on
an inverted L suppported by one of the Rhombic towers on the island.
We had suggested he try a 5/16 wvl inverted L with the vertical near 80 ft,
utilizing the base section of the damaged BC special and the radials. Chris
says he got such an inverted L up and had worked TO0R and VK0IR with low
power. But the winds had returned and the wire broke. Says, with the 500
pf vacuum cap he had access to, the match was excellent. So he try agn in
the near future (hopefully with stronger wire) to get the inverted L back up.
He told us that even though this is the summer "calm" season, they are
having severe storms nearly one-third of the time. All this after the wx
guys in the group told him the stormy season was over! The first storm that
damaged the BC special was estimated in excess of 186 KM/H. He asks for
more patience and he'll be back on top band.
Let's hope he's successful and we all get another shot.
73 George W8UVZ
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