From: Steve <steveac@charter.net>
To: TowerTalk <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Open wire line no longer the weak link
A few months ago I replaced my #18AWG open wire feeding my 80 meter
dipole with #8AWG open wire.
For a long while my transition from outside to inside has been a window
pane of glass that I replaced with plexiglass. I put short pieces of
threaded rod thru the plexiglass to serve as feedthrus. About 70 feet of
open wire leaves the threaded-rod termination on the outside and makes
its way up to the center of my dipole, which is supported in a tree and
surrounded by other trees.
Through the course of a year there will be several good size branches
fall from those trees. Seems like it?s just a matter of time until one
of them hits my open wire on the way to the ground.
I wasn?t concerned about it with the #18AWG, thinking the small wire was
the weak link and would break before anything else gave way.
But the bigger wire ?- the #8AWG ?- moves the weak link to somewhere
else. Probably the pane of plexiglass. And on the inside there?s about
15 feet of the same open wire tied to a switching relay which is tied to
antenna tuners. I can envision how a large branch could tear the
plexiglass out of the window, tear my relay and mounting into pieces,
etc. Not a pretty picture.
What can I do to ensure that the plexiglass pane remains intact when
something big from a tree falls across the open wire line?
Thanks.
Steve K8JQ