Topband: Ice

[Charlie Cunningham]

Yikes!! 

BTW - that lower 40m yagi with the bent element probably works just fine!  I
don't know if  you've ever modeled yagis with bent or missing elements, but
the results are pretty interesting! Yagis just "want to work"! :-)

GL!

-----Original Message-----
From: Topband [mailto:topband-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Tom W8JI
Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2014 3:33 PM
To: topband at contesting.com
Subject: Topband: Ice

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 

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