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

[Bob Shohet, KQ2M]

I want to thank the MANY people that responded to my request for help in getting a stuck wire antenna out of a tree.  Very sorry about the several day delay in my response but I was making the most out of our October Summer weather in Connecticut to work on fixing all my low-band antennas and some high band issues.  I received quite an array of responses, some of them truly unique and mind-bending.  I will definitely use some of them in the future!

My favorites in no particular order:

1) Drone and cutting blade  - definitely a “keeper”.  I do plan to buy a drone for antenna related uses.  I will have questions about which drone you bought and why,

2) Rope cutting blade – never saw or heard of one but I will inquire – sounds very useful,

3) Chainsaw cutting blade – see above

4) Shotgun  -  I live in deep woods and very heavy forest but I would definitely freak out my neighbors because our houses are too close to use one safely – but this was an idea that never would have occurred to me.  LOL! 

Bucket truck and several other options not possible here; but good suggestions none the less.  Tree climber – would be a possibility (I have a great Tree man who lives 1/2 mile from me and I have been using him for my tree work for the past 20+ years) but not for this particular branch.  Burning the antenna and chainsawing the tree seemed a little “extreme” for this case but would have provided some visceral satisfaction.   :-)  And there were some other good ideas including a 50’ pole saw – which would still be too low for this branch but I never would have thought of making a pole saw that long – this idea I will definitely use on other trees.

So what did I do?

The end of the antenna was stuck in place 11’ off the ground.  But I had a tall wooden step ladder.  After a lot of thought, and then more thought and measuring, I realized that I could potentially pull up the SO239 and raised radials to the end of the wire element and then I use a thick split-bolt connector to clamp a piece of thick twine to 3” above the end of the wire element.  I did that and then pulled up the SO239 (with radials) until it was just above the top of the end of the wire element and then I tied the end of twine around the SO239 and radials to tenuously hold it in place.  I then took the soldering wedge and solder up to the SO239 (the SO239 was inverted with the center pin facing up) and with the solder in my teeth and wearing a pair of goggles to protect my eyes, I held the soldering wedge in my right hand and steadied the element wire in my left and then heated up the wire and the center pin of the connector.  After they got hot, I fed the solder in by moving my head.   After two tries, I got the wire in and soldered it solidly.  Now the element was reattached to the SO239 as it was before. Problem solved!

It was no fun though trying to balance near the top of the step ladder while both my hands and mouth were engaged in a delicate act.  Fortunately I have good balance and I had stabilized the step ladder on the uneven ground before I climbed back up.  A fall off the ladder would have led to some nasty injuries because underneath the ladder were sharp rocks, hard pan and and ledge.  Fortunately it worked.  If it didn’t then I would have had to go with plan B, C, D, E, F, G or something more extreme and time consuming and far more costly.

BTW, the carabiner idea is GREAT and I am going to attempt to use that on several of my ropes in the future when I need to replace them!

My antenna works now ( I worked 3C0L on 80) and in the process of attempting to deal with this problem I learned of several other possible solutions that never would have occurred to me, thanks to all of you for your help and insight!

73

Bob KQ2M



Bob Shohet, KQ2M

From: Edward Mccann 
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2017 11:15 AM
To: Jon Zaimes 
Cc: Bob Shohet, KQ2M ; Tower Talk 
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Getting a stuck wire antenna out of a tree

And after you get it out, go to Home Depot, spend $12 on a poly-clad bicycle cablelock long enough to wrap around the tree branch or trunk, secure the two eyes with a stainless carabiner or threaded shackle (next aisle over) and run several continuos black antenna ropes thru the shackle, as in sail halyards. Pick one, half way tie in a harkens marine pulley ($15 on Amazon), run your wire through, and haul away!

Ed McCann
AG6CX