All Good Things Must End (two antenna support trees dead)
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- Опубліковано 26 чер 2024
- #hamradio #hf #antenna
We moved to our current QTH, 25 years ago. I first installed the Cushcraft R-5 vertical that I brought with me from my previous QTH. I attached it to the 4x4 corner post of the deck.
I installed the Fritzel FD-4 Off-Center-Fed dipole that I also brought over from my previous QTH. It was supported by pine trees.
Later I installed a G5RV that I had used at my previous QTH. I supported it in the middle with a Maple tree, angling down from the center to form an inverted “V” orientation. I only installed it as a noise receive antenna for a noise canceling device. But I discovered that it worked very well for 40 meters. So I decided to start using it for transmit also.
Soon afterwards, I built a 160-meter Doublet Antenna System, supported in the middle by another Maple tree.
A few years ago, I replaced the G5RV with its much improved cousin, the ZS6BKW. That antenna never ceases to amaze me.
Well, after 25 years, the two Maple trees that have supported my two best HF antennas have died. Only one is completely dead, but the other is diseased and will soon die. So the trees must come down before they fall and cause damage to our home. But what about my antennas? How will they be supported now? I have another tree that supports my lesser-used OCF dipole. Maybe I will have to give up the OCF dipole and use its support tree for either the ZS6BKW or the 160-meter Doublet. It’s all covered in this video.
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73, de N4HNH - Наука та технологія
Sorry you lost your trees Doug, it was nice that the tree trimmer's could re-install the antennas.
I am glad to have the antennas back up. The limbs were too small for them to climb on to install a pulley, but the Dacron rope is strong enough. I just need to give it a tug once a month to be sure the limb doesn’t start to grow around it.
That was quite the project!
So far so good with the new locations. But the limbs are too small for them to install a pulley. It’s just Dacron rope thrown over the limb. The Dacron rope is tough though. I just tug on it once a month to make sure the limb isn’t growing around it. That happened to me before I had pulleys installed. If these two trees die, I’m out of antenna trees.
I am sorry for your loss. In 2007-09, we had a drought which killed a number of old trees. I was not a ham then, but I am careful where my wires go now.
If I lose these, I guess I will have to resort to a mast pole or beg my neighbor to use one of his trees to support the high end of an EFHW.
Sorry for your loss. That’s the problem in dealing with trees I guess. Best of luck.
If the trees that are supporting them now die, I’m in trouble. There are no others on my 1/3 acre that are suitable.
I use 2 aluminum 32’ spider beams with a 130’ end fed in a dipole position after having the same issues. 73
Resourceful. Necessity is the mother of invention.
Uggg - time for the engineer/magician to come out in you
Ha!
Sorry you lost those trees Doug. Now that the antennas are back up, and a little higher, I wonder how the reception is?
No significant difference with the Doublet but the ZS6BKW is better, at the expense of the SWR. The SWR of the ZS6BKW is worse on the 20m band now. I now have to touch it up on the lower end of the 20m band whereas it needed no antenna match for 20m before. I attribute this to the fact that it is no longer an inverted V. The tree guy removed my rope on one end without telling me. I had already lowered the middle but the wanted the rope and wire on one side completely on the ground. He said he would put it back up. When he put it back, he threw his bag so high that it made that side of the antenna completely horizontal. The other side is still angled downward, for inverted V. So I have a combination flat top and V.
Bummer. I’m hoping my trees are ok. No idea but the seem ok to me. They’re all I have going for me antenna wise.
Mine were diseased.
@@n4hnhradio i understand. Sorry. Trees are a wonderful gift.
Could anything have been done or is it that once diseased there’s nothing that can be done? If you addressed that question sorry if I missed it.
Makes me think I need to call a tree surgeon to check mine out.
I saw white spits around the lower portion of the truck of both trees. The arborist said they would die. One died and the other was dying. It was less expensive to remove both at once. The disease appears to have been cankers.