Element vibration can also be dampened by insertion of a weight into the
element tip. I had problems in my TH7 stack with the 10 and 15 meter element
tips breaking off until 6 inch pieces of steel rod were installed into the
ends of the elements. The added weight did cause a slight amount of sag but
the the oscillations were markedly slower and of lower amplitude. I lost
several tips in the first year the system was installed and since the
modification about 10 years ago only a couple more have broken. Perhaps they
were already weakened before the weights were added. Needless to say, any
future beams at my qth will have the dampeners installed!
73 de K5GW
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