[TowerTalk] Hurricane, antenna farm

[Shannon Boal]

Well, Frances is tearing up my antenna farm. The Rohn 25 is fine, but the
Gap Challenger is challenged. My 60 foot irrigation pipe vertical is in
pieces. The wind shook things for so long that fatigue set in. The gusts
were not over 70mph or so, but the duration... I fear it may be "curtains",
for the sterba curtain. The beams were on the ground, and big quads, too, so
they are OK. This is such a big storm, it is tearing hell out of the trees,
and it is 130+ miles away!
   Unbelievable! Now we are in for maybe 36 hours of the same, plus much
heavier rain. I really feel for the Bahamians, as they caught it much, much
worse. I still have a phone line, no power, of course. It will be a while
for power, they have only just finished patching together a system after
Charley. On towers, the only anchor that will hold will be one that has
enough mass on it's own; anchors don't hold in wet earth.
        Getting worse, gotta go
                        Shannon Boal K4GLM
                          Waldo, FL