Topband: Ice

[Tom W8JI]

The ice that fell off my Yagi's typically measures about 1" thick off the 
largest pieces, and 1/2" thick on the smaller thicknesses. I'm going to 
assume the thick pieces are from the bottoms, so that's probably like 3/4 
inch radial ice.

We lost power just before sunset last night.The power lines are a mess on my 
road, I'd guess they use maybe 400 ft spans, so they broke in multiple 
places. I expect days before we have commercial power.

All of my Yagis sprung back except the 40 meter antenna. The ice dropped off 
one side of the top antenna, so it rotated the elements enough to look 
pretty ugly. The bottom 40M Yagi lived just fine until big chunks of ice 
kept banging it, and then one side of one element bent.

Many ropes snapped. The next time I need to remember to go out and release 
tension **before** the ice hits. Once it started icing, none of the ropes 
running through pulleys could be released.

I have not looked at Beverages and in woods and fields, but I have a lot of 
tree and building damage so I expect some chain saw and receiving antenna 
work.

All in all not bad for such a large amount of ice.

73 Tom