Scary stuff, Dennis. I’ve heard of more hams having straight line wind damage this year. That can be a devastating as a tornado. Glad to hear it wasn’t any worse that it was, if that’s any comfort!

Joel

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Dennis Schaefer
Sent: Sunday, July 2, 2023 10:25 AM
To: ADXA <[email protected]>
Subject: [ADXA] close call

Two weeks ago, we had straight line winds of over 60 MPH in the Russellville area.  I lost a lot of limbs off trees but everything else was fine except that our power was off for over 2 days.   Then on the Sunday that Field Day ended, we had another big blow.  This time. we lost a huge pine tree.  I was relieved to see that it fell behind a guy wire anchor, but when I went out to look, I saw that the guy wire was still attached to the root ball and about 8 feet off the ground.  Miraculously, it did not pull the tower over.  I got some help and made another anchor point on Tuesday.  We had some threatening weather during several days while the concrete was drying, but nothing hit us.  I reconnected the guy wire yesterday and now I’m breathing a little easier.  

The tower is 56 feet, house bracketed at 12 feet, with one set of guys at about 50 feet.  It has stood like that for several decades with no problem.  The guy wires are attached to a Hazer but I almost never lower the antenna because of VHF antennas and other stuff below the antenna.  I may need to rethink the whole thing.

No EU on 6 meters here, either, except for a CU3 earlier in the season.

Dennis/RZ