I know this can be a humorous kind of topic, but it was serious for me.
For awhile, I had my VHF and UHF beams mounted on a mast that went up along
the back of the house. There is a flock of pigeons around here. They would
congregate on the antennas and dump all over the nice dark tiled roof. This
started happening the day I put the antennas up!
It got so bad that the stuff started getting all over the side of the house
and the patio walk-way directly below.
This was enough for the XYL, who doesn't mind the hobby (but HATES the
antennas) to start complaining.
The antennas had to come down. It really was getting ugly. Those birds would
sit on the antennas while they were rotating, and didn't seem to mind 200
Watts PEP on 144.200MHz either!
The upside is now I'm trying to convince the XYL that a modest tower away from
the house and patio would be a good solution! Of course, that brings up
another set of problems.
The shotgun sounds nice but watch your aim! (Actually, even a real tight
pattern at close range will hit the antenna). And don't forget, what goes up
must...
My neighbor put a real nice life-like statue of an owl at the peak of his two
story home. Same flock of pigeons. The time it worked can be measured in
hours, not days!
Best Regards,
Joe Spinosa
KF6CWX
Concord, CA
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