[TowerTalk] Mechanical weak link in leg of dipole

[Sean Waite]

I made sure the dacron rope I use to hold my dipole up had a significantly
lower break strength than the wireman wire I used for the dipole itself.
It's still not a guarantee, as the branch may kink or have a sharp shock to
where it hits the wire and break it there, but at least it's something.

Sean WA1TE

On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 3:38 PM Steve65 <steve65 at suddenlink.net> wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> The south end of my 80-meter dipole runs among trees. The trees are
> higher than the antenna wire and have limbs which are above the dipole.
> Big limbs. The dipole is made of #14AWG THHN. It is supported at its
> southern end with about 40ft of 3/16in rope tied off in a tree.
>
> One of the trees that is near the antenna is a large beech. One of its
> limbs broke off a few months ago and narrowly missed the antenna wire.
> I'm thinking about installing a mechanical weak link in this leg of the
> dipole that would break if one of the heavy limbs falls across the
> antenna wire.
>
> Good idea? Bad idea?
>
> What material would be a good choice for the weak link?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Steve, K8JQ
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