[RFI] Pin Arcing

[Pete Smith]

At 12:24 PM 7/19/2004, Ward Silver wrote:

>Relax, folks - I'm not talking about knocking the pole down or making like
>John Henry with a 9-pound hammer.  I'm talking about making it vibrate a
>little bit with a hand-held mallet to see if the noise is affected.
>Sometimes all it takes is a good swift kick with a steel-toed boot.
>
>Use your noodle and don't try to beat the pole into submission. It is highly
>unlikely that any kind of love-tap on a pole is going to cause a dramatic
>collapse of the pole hardware.  If it was in that state, it would have
>already failed.
>

Often a little shaking of the pole's guy wires can have the desired effect, 
and has the added advantage of being able to stand far enough away so that 
if anything should fall, it is unlikely to hit you.  I also find it useful 
sometimes to specifically "listen to" the ground and guy wires on a pole 
with my portable SW receiver, before switching to the hand-held 136 MHz 
Moxon that I built to go with my shirt-pocket handitalki that has AM 
receive in the aircraft band.


73, Pete N4ZR
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