[TowerTalk] Deer are a PITA but Trees are great - REMEMBER

Sat Nov 11 18:03:02 EST 2017

Hi Mike,
Just curious how much impact on performance if you keep the feedpoints the same height and follow the slope of the land? Anyone model this?

The deer, sometimes as many as 13 sleep right behind my deck. Deer smart pills everywhere.

N2TK, Tony

-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Mike Smith VE9AA
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2017 4:38 PM
To: 'Kim Elmore' <cw_de_n5op at sbcglobal.net>
Cc: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Deer are a PITA but Trees are great - REMEMBER

Hmmm – I might have to try (something like) that Kim. 

I did put on a little bit of black e-tape (like tiny flags) here and there on some of the more or less “paths” in the woods, so I (or deer coming through) would

see it and to keep it low key so I couldn’t see it from the house, but I am now thinking about using something like that in the future.

I have some green marker tape that would be “relatively” camo (at least until it fades from UV somewhat) so that might also be an option.

Since this tiny sliver of woods is not particularly thick I’d rather not look out over 28 raised radials every day.  I am sure the neighbours

appreciate the fact the wires and end of radial supports are for all intents and purpose ‘invisible’, too ;-D

I’ve rec’d a few questions directly why I didn’t mount the bases of (some) of the verticals higher.  Here’s my reply to that:

Because all my 4-squares are pretty much on a steep slope in a small rectangular strip of woods, adjacent my yard,  some are aprox 7-8’ AGL at the base of the vertical (and not as prone to deer damage as the radials are really high, at least where they start out), but the ones located closer to the lawn, on the edge of the woods, are only a couple feet above the ground level and do employ gullwing radials already. 

If I had made the lower ones, say, 7-8’, the ones deep in the woods would’ve needed to be 10-15’ high and not reachable without a ladder (not really possible over the very rocky ground, down in the woods) 

I designed it this way to make them all electrically/physically in the same plane, regardless of the undulating nature of the Earth underneath the verts.

 It’s not perfect.

 Deer are a menace.

 They are lovely to look at, but eat my wifes plants too.

 If I was good with a bow and arrow (or even throwing a big rock), I wager I could get 3 a week………until I finished them all off ;-)

 AA

Mike, Coreen & Corey

Keswick Ridge, NB

From: Kim Elmore [mailto:cw_de_n5op at sbcglobal.net]
Sent: November 11, 2017 3:55 PM
To: Mike Smith VE9AA
Cc: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Deer are a PITA but Trees are great - REMEMBER

You might try tying strips of white cloth at intervals along the radials. That way, the deer can at least see them. 

73,

Kim N5OP

"People that make music together cannot be enemies, at least as long as the music lasts." -- Paul Hindemith

On Nov 11, 2017, at 11:57, Mike Smith VE9AA <ve9aa at nbnet.nb.ca> wrote:

I just spent the last 2 hours out in the woods during antenna season (ie:
blustery wind, subzero cold, ice to slip on but no leaves on the trees)

What was I doing you say? … Repairing 26 out of my 28 raised radials on all my wire 4-sq arrays in prep for contest season.  Only one wire itself was broken (I use fencing wire) but all the ends that attach to supports were broken.

I accept Mother Natures wrath with some of my radials being broken due to swaying trees and falling widow-makers and don’t give it a second thought… It’s almost a ritual just to do the yearly repairs. HOWEVER the friggin’
deer here are relentless !  It’s no exaggeration to say we generally go no more than 1 or 2 days w/o seeing deer either in the back 40 or crossing the road near our house.  Two have been hit within 100’ of my driveway this fall alone.

I found radials up and over trees, going in the wrong directions, down under big rocks and one was wrapped around a tree twice!.....at one point when I got to the end of a particular 80m radial I thought for sure I’d find a dead deer at the end – LOL….but he must have finally got away….or maybe the cougar that was reported here 2 months ago got him.

Last year when I installed all these 4-squares I got the (not so) bright idea I would use that oiled hemp string to go between the ends of the radials and the nearest tree. Well…..it was true….hemp is aesthetically pleasing (can’t see it from the house_) but definitely not deer proof.
There was a radial here and there, which even had old limbs of trees on them where the hemp was NOT broken, so I can only imagine the deer chew on the stuff or something – HI !

I have 2 repairs still left to do (the most difficult) where the (wire) verticals themselves came down.(Mother Nature, not deer)  One of the 160m ones is always tough to get up over a couple trees and I don’t look forward to the task.  For now, I have repaired all the radials with more hemp, but am contemplating doubling them up with 40lb test fishing line.  I don’t really want to go to ¼” nylon as I could see it from the house and road.

I really don’t want to raise them up from the 4-5’ they are all at now to something higher as I’ll have to reengineering all the coax phasing lines and the locations of the bases of all the verticals, re-tweak all the SWR’s etc.

I guess I just like to complain ;-)………

It could be worse….I COULD be living in downtown Vancouver or NYC or London with no land and no trees.

Thank God for New Brunswick, Canada and our wonderful trees !  

At this time of year, besides fallen wires and trees,  we should also remember the fallen in the World Wars so that we all can enjoy the life we lead today.

For now I’ve put on a fresh warm hoodie, (Ironic that it says “Newfoundland & Labrador”, not “New Brunswick”), brewed a cup of Tim Hortons coffee and am thankful for what I do have.

Mike VE9 Arborist Arborist !

p.s.-can’t/won’t do ground radials….steep incline in the woods on the side of an old farm field, so it’s rocky, covered in leaves and the deer hooves would get caught up in them anyways.

Mike, Coreen & Corey

Keswick Ridge, NB

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