[TowerTalk] [Fwd: Open wire line no longer the weak link]

[Steve]

Several of you wrote to me direct or via the reflector with advice about 
protecting the plexiglass window pane where my open wire line is 
terminated.

Thank you, as usual this is the place to come for help.

I'll probably go with the "mechanical fuse" for the time being since 
it's easy to implement: A short piece of #18 between the plexiglass and 
the heavy line heading up into the trees.

Several people suggested mounting banana plugs in the plexiglass. This 
would allow the open wire line to simply be pulled out if it were to 
become weighted down with a heavy tree limb. I like that idea and it may 
be my eventual solution.

Again . . . thanks everyone!

Steve K8JQ

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [TowerTalk] Open wire line no longer the weak link
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2005 00:06:52 -0500
From: Steve <steveac at charter.net>
To: TowerTalk <towertalk at contesting.com>

A few months ago I replaced my #18AWG open wire feeding my 80 meter
dipole with #8AWG open wire.

For a long while my transition from outside to inside has been a window
pane of glass that I replaced with plexiglass. I put short pieces of
threaded rod thru the plexiglass to serve as feedthrus. About 70 feet of
open wire leaves the threaded-rod termination on the outside and makes
its way up to the center of my dipole, which is supported in a tree and
surrounded by other trees.

Through the course of a year there will be several good size branches
fall from those trees. Seems like it’s just a matter of time until one
of them hits my open wire on the way to the ground.

I wasn’t concerned about it with the #18AWG, thinking the small wire was
the weak link and would break before anything else gave way.

But the bigger wire –- the #8AWG –- moves the weak link to somewhere
else. Probably the pane of plexiglass. And on the inside there’s about
15 feet of the same open wire tied to a switching relay which is tied to
antenna tuners. I can envision how a large branch could tear the
plexiglass out of the window, tear my relay and mounting into pieces,
etc. Not a pretty picture.

What can I do to ensure that the plexiglass pane remains intact when
something big from a tree falls across the open wire line?

Thanks.

Steve K8JQ
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