In Finland, especially up North, many stations use 'kolkutin' to clang
against the boom.
It consists of a wire, pulley, hinge, some iron tube (or L-profile iron)
and some weight at the end of the iron arm.
Pull the weighted arm and clang it against the boom.
It will drop most of the ice.
Make it so it will clang both sides of the boom - i.e. one arm to both
sides of the tower.
Make it so you are not underneath the dropping ice when clanging - for
that you may need a second pulleys.
In English this wonderful tool could be called a clanger .. ?
To whack the tower with 2x4 or 2x5 wood is one quick remedy, but you
will be under the tower and falling ice.
Whacking the tower will not really make the ice drop off the antennas,
which are in practise always the more fragile part in all this.
73,
Jukka OH6LI
-----Alkuperäinen viesti-----
Lähettäjä: cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com] Puolesta David Pruett
Lähetetty: 19. joulukuuta 2008 0:42
Kopio: cq-contest@contesting.com
Aihe: Re: [CQ-Contest] Ice Storms in NE
All:
I've had cases with my homemade full-sized 3L 40 (which has severe
element taper and small diameter tips) where ice loaded the elements to
the point where the tips were pointing straight down. Jerking the beam
back and forth with the rotator caused the elements to flop around
enough that all the ice was shed and the elements sprung back to normal.
Really.
Still, these conditions were not as severe as those endured by our W1
brethren his past weekend. My empathy goes out to those who lost
antennas. As K3LR says, our hearts break to see the results of your
hard work damaged.
73,
Dave/K8CC
K1TTT wrote:
> In most of the cases once the boom is bent, especially if its an acute
> angle, that is a permanent loss... a smooth bow in a boom may return
to
> normal if it didn't reach the elastic limit.
>
> Elements are often more surprising, they can sometimes look horribly
bowed
> when ice loaded but snap right back up to normal when it melts. In
the case
> here though the ice was followed by strong winds which permanently
bent or
> broke elements.
>
> If you go to my blog at
>
http://wiki.k1ttt.net/2008%20Maintenance%20and%20Upgrade%20Blog.ashx#Bot
tom
> And scroll up to the entries for 12/12 you will see some pictures
elements
> that look like horseshoes, but were still intact until the wind came
up.
>
>
> David Robbins K1TTT
> e-mail: mailto:k1ttt@arrl.net
> web: http://www.k1ttt.net
> AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Chris Smith [mailto:mi0lll@btinternet.com]
>> Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 18:09
>> To: cq-contest@contesting.com
>> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Ice Storms in NE
>>
>> After seeing these pictures my deepest sympathy goes out to Matt and
all
>> the KC1XX team
>> and whoever else has suffered such devastation, not only financial
but the
>> amount of man hours
>> that has been spent by all perfecting their antenna systems is truly
sad
>> to look at.
>>
>> I wonder if when the ice melts do some of the elements and booms
return
>> back to shape or
>> will it be permanently damaged ?.
>> What we worry about in this part of the world (we don't get ice
>> loading) is high wind, which is
>> a small worry when compared to this.
>>
>> Hoping all effected get the will power to bounce back from this and
work
>> you on the air soon.
>>
>> 73's
>>
>> Chris
>> MI0LLL / GI5K
>>
>>
>> I'm not certain where our local contester found this link, but here's
a
>> slideshow with photos of the damage at KC1XX.
>>
>> http://gallery.me.com/wlmyers#100029&bgcolor=black&view=grid_
>>
>> Mother nature can be a brute. Toward the end there are photos of the
>> "sheath" of ice on the guys, elements, and booms. I don't know how
you can
>> design antennas for a 2" radial ice situation.
>>
>> 73 de Bob - KØRC in MN
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: <K5NZ@aol.com>
>> To: <cq-contest@contesting.com>
>> Sent: Monday, December 15, 2008 6:53 AM
>> Subject: [CQ-Contest] Ice Storms in NE
>>
>>
>>
>>> I know many of you in the NE have had a tuff time last few days with
the
>>> ice
>>> storm. Hope you get power back ASAP and didn't have too much
antenna
>>> damage..
>>>
>>> k5nz
>>>
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>
>
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>
>
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