my experience has been that rotating only works for a while- they get use to
it ... I've had literally hundreds of birds on antennas at one time ...
never had any damage...but here in my new location in upstate SC I have 3
VERY large turkey vultures in the back corner of our 11 acres ... near the
back tower - I'll probably need to get rid of them before finishing the
planned 2 towers with stacks... I absolutely DON'T want damage to those
antennas.
I wonder if one could run a dacron rope - well no - good idea but it
wouldn't fully cover everything - I was thinking of running a 1/8" dacron
rope taut between the ends of the boom about 3" above it - this would keep
them from at least landing on the boom I believe... but I'd rather have them
land there then on the elements.
I had read somewhere - was it on here? To hang a CD on a string - drill the
CD offset from the center so that it constantly twists - and the reflections
will ward them off ... not sure if that would work all the time but might
work during daylight hours. Seems birds tend to 'sit' on lines at sunset so
that probably wouldn't work then.
Maybe a wireless speaker? Play predator bird sounds through it? Cannon?
The problem is whatever you do needs to be constant - so anything that
involves yourself isn't going to work as they'll just be there when you're
not.
Gary
K9RX
-----Original Message-----
From: Tom_N2SR
Sent: Tuesday, August 2, 2016 12:15 PM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Birds and the Leaning Tower
Same here. I normally see the turkey buzzards after a morning rain or when
there is dew, when they will sit at the top of the mast and at the ends of
the boom with their wing unfurled, probably trying to dry them off. One
time I think I had 8 of them up there. I wonder if it's good luck?
Since the feedline to the 2 element 40 is under the boom, there are no
issues with claws damaging it. When I installed the C31XR at 80 feet, and
the feedlines wrap around to the top side of the boom (because of the ring
rotator), I placed a piece of Dacron rope between the boom truss and the
boom (vertically) to keep larger birds from trying to land there and
damaging the coax.
I've never had a problem with a large bird trying to land on any of the
elements. Maybe they have tried in the past and have felt that it was
unstable.
They also do not like to be "rotated." After once or twice they typically
go somewhere else.
Tom, N2SR
From: "john@kk9a.com" <john@kk9a.com>
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 2, 2016 11:33 AM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Birds and the Leaning Tower
Lately a lot of turkey vultures enjoy sitting on my upper antennas. They
are fairly large and not very nice looking. I do not think that there is
any way to keep birds off. If the element turned on the boom you can
temporary fix it by tossing a rope around the higher end and pulling it
level. For a more permanent solution you may have to use better clamps. If
the aluminum physically bent it is either a soft grade or too small. An
element truss can also help.
GL
John
my
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