Mike, good work!
You were not the only thing prowling the woods and playing with
wires yesterday. I ventured off to repair Beverages that came down
in a recent storm. Repair may be too strong a word. These reversible
Beverages have a break-away feature at each end so that if a tree
falls on the wire it simply unplugs from one or both end boxes and
drops to the ground. Repair involves walking each Beverage, cutting
away any trees or branches that are over the wire, then reattaching
the ends with a new break-away link. I estimate on a repair mission
such as this where all four are down I walk about a mile through
snow and rough terrain. At least last summer I finally got them
rebuilt such that I don't need to carry a ladder with me on these
operations! That was getting really old after 14 years.
I was able to get three back in operation. Apparently the east-west
one had been down earlier than the others and I didn't realize it.
It had to have been down prior to the last high water at the little
stream, because about 60 feet of it is now under a 3 inch thick
sheet of ice that is (mostly) suspended high and dry above ground in
the area that flooded. There are remains of a dead tree frozen in
the ice on top of the wire near one end of that section. I spent
about an hour and a half shoveling snow off the ice, breaking the
ice with a 16 pound ice bar, and then using a hammer to chip ice
chunks off the recovered wire. During this time I made about 8 feet
of progress. By the way, it's mildly interesting busting up a sheet
of ice suspended high and dry that you also happen to be standing
on. :-)
At that point I was about to lose light and was too tired to
continue, so I stopped for the day. I am honestly not sure this
recovery effort is worthwhile. Although replacing the wire and
attaching new end connectors in a water tight way (it is WD-1A wire
with some steel strands, so water must be kept out!) is a
challenging job in mid winter, it would probably be less work than
retrieving the existing wire from under the ice. In another spot
this wire has had an encounter with something, probably a deer, that
thought this just might be good to chew on. It's not chewed in two,
but the insulation is damaged to the point it will have to be
replaced soon anyway.
I'll probably just forget it until Spring. It's not like I've been
using them much, as I am too busy playing on 2200 meters to get on
160, 80, 40.
I've got other projects on my hands. Yesterday morning at dawn I had
a fire in the 2200m loading coil assembly:
http://www.n1bug.com/vario-fail-0-1200.jpg
http://www.n1bug.com/vario-fail-1-1200.jpg
http://www.n1bug.com/vario-fail-2-1200.jpg
I guess I (barely, since this was a minor fire that I caught early)
passed another rite of initiation, since there are but two kinds of
LF operators: those who *have* started a fire and those who *will*.
;-) No doubt I'll manage a higher order event next time! Onward and
upward! LF = "Let's Fire!"
73,
Paul N1BUG
aka 'Square One Enterprises' to my friends
(because I have a tendency to end up back at square one)
On 1/15/19 12:41 PM, Mike Smith VE9AA wrote:
> I spent a couple hours down in the woods today 'trying' to resurrect my 160m
> inverted L (not successful yet.long story) and I looked about 100' away from
> where I was working and saw a CAR TIRE deep in the woods, on my property,
> apparently hanging from a tree abt 10' off the ground. WTF?
>
>
>
> (there are no paths here, no close neighbours on that side and you'd have to
> be stir-crazy to be monkeying about with anything in this patch of woods, in
> the subzero winter, on a steep very rocky slope, in deep snow.. so at first
> glance I couldn't imagine why a tire was up a tree!) Bears? Moose? Elves?
> Yeti?
>
>
>
> I worked away a cpl hours at my semi-recently collapsed 160m inv L,
> eventually getting all the fallen ropes and wires unstuck from under a foot
> or so of snow, and untangled from multiple trees and bushes but ran out of
> steam putting it all back up. When attempting to reinstall, I kept
> breaking my fishing line when I was pulling the new rope over the trees; got
> disgusted and had enough. Normally I break very few lines or ropes, so a
> combination of cold temps and icy/snowy ropes made everything heavier and a
> bit more brittle I think.
>
>
>
> I don't give up easy, but a guy has to know his limits.
>
>
>
> (not easy wading through a foot or so of snow , walking a 300' path, over
> and over untangling 130' of wire and 200' of ropes, being an old fat guy
> when it's -7*C outside) .So, even though I was dog tired, the curiosity got
> the better of me.and after a short coffee break I had to go look at this
> mystery tire.
>
> Somewhat refreshed, I stomped a new path, across the field and through the
> snow and down into the woods to investigate.
>
>
>
> All my 4 square verticals terminate about 6-8' off the ground, each with 2
> raised radials , then at the junction(insulator) of each ground plane, it's
> tied to a short 6-8' rope, which is then tied to a tire laying on the
> ground. (hey, recycle when possible, eh?).nobody can see these 'down over
> the hilld, in the woods' from the road or my house, so it's not an eyesore.
> Normally the tires are covered in leaves/brush/plants/twigs or snow, and are
> down a steep slope so out of sight-out of mind. I never think about them.
>
>
>
> Turns out , sometime quite recently , a HUGE tree fell and took out some
> (more) of my (recently repaired) raised radials AND it also came down on
> top of the horizontal part of one of my 80m inverted L verticals. The
> 12#awg stranded wire didn't break. The immense tree just hauled most of the
> wire quite literally right to the ground and so the tire, rope (and coax and
> vertical and 2 raised radials) went flooop, right up in the air. What a
> sight that would've been to behold. (Like a Rube Goldberg device). I am
> lucky that it didn't go up in the air a couple more feet, otherwise the coax
> would've likely ripped apart all the switching and dummy load etc at the
> center of the array.
>
>
>
> Badly tangled, I cut the wire and got enough purchase on the tire with a
> stick to pull it back down to Earth.
>
> I was wondering why my SWR was so high to the NW in NAQP CW the other
> night. I guess I now know.
>
>
>
> I am sure the neighbours must think I am certifiable. Fishing in trees in
> the middle of January, untangling what must seem to them like miles of rope
> and wire in a huge snowy field (~1ac.), then later, hauling in a tire out of
> the nearby woods as my reward.
>
>
>
> Oh, yeah. I'm nuts.
>
>
>
> Mike VE9AA
>
>
>
> Mike, Coreen & Corey
>
> Keswick Ridge, NB
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