[TowerTalk] Getting a stuck wire antenna out of a tree

[Jim Brown]

On 10/18/2017 6:30 AM, Jon Zaimes wrote:
> Hire a tree climber to remove and re-install, using a rope with lower breaking strength than the wire. Then if it gets snagged again the rope should break not the wire if you pull on it.

Hi Jon,

I hire tree climbers to rig my high wires. They're not cheap -- $900 for 
a 6 hour day is the going rate. I'm lucky to get one end of a high 
dipole rigged in a day. If a wire or rope breaks, I get to hire them 
again, so I try to "safety" all of the mechanical connections in my 
antennas and use ropes that are less likely to break.

I had a 7/16-in Synthetic Textiles rope break in a storm last winter. So 
far, I've had climbers for two days, and the dipole is still on the 
ground -- they have one more tree to climb. The first day was removing 
the broken dipole from a big madrone and trimming the madrone back a lot.

I DO use a "mechanical fuse" as you suggest at the feedpoint of my 160M 
Tee vertical, which is also rigged between a pair of redwoods. All of my 
horizontal wires, including this one, have a weight on one end to allow 
for wind sway, but that can put mechanical stress on the feedpoint 
connection when wind increases tension on the horizontal wire and pulls 
the vertical wire upward. The fuse takes the form of mating "banana" 
connectors.

73, Jim K9YC