[TowerTalk] Mechanical weak link in leg of dipole

[Jim Brown]

Hi Steve,

How did you get ropes to support that wire up there?  I'm guessing it 
wasn't easy. Rather than a mechanical fuse, most of us use strain relief 
in the form of a pulley and weight on one end. This also minimizes the 
chance that a wire or rope migh break in the wind. Every situation is 
different, of course.  My high wires in trees are through a pulley on 
both ends. At one end, the rope is tied off, on the other end there's a 
weight. In my case, the weight is a water jug full of dry sand, about 
90# (the wires are up 120 -140 ft, fed with RG-11).

73, Jim K9YC

On Fri,6/23/2017 12:38 PM, Steve65 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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