Topband: Ice

[Mike Waters]

The last ice storm surely would have taken down my 160m inverted-L, had it
not been for the counterweight at the end. (It's made from #16 THHN, not
very strong.) The pulley did not completely ice up, apparently because it
moved every so often as ice made the antenna heavier.

At one point, the ice on the antenna raised the counterweight way up in the
air. After the ice melted, it all returned to the way it was before the
storm.

I lost one wire on one of the Beverages (where there was a kink from other
damage), but it's a matter of time before a bigger ice storm completely
takes down both Beverages. I'm toying with the idea of counterweights at
the ends to help protect them. The pulleys are already there.

73, Mike
www.w0btu.com

On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 2:32 PM, Tom W8JI <w8ji at w8ji.com> wrote:

> 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.
>