[K3PZN-List] Antennas

[Kyle Thornton]

All,
So last Thursday was a pretty good day until I came down the hill behind my house going into my neighborhood. I usually always look over at my antennas just because why not. Well when I looked over this time I noticed the R5 Vertical had fallen and was hanging partly on the gutter and partly on the VHF tower right next to it. 

The minute I got home I didn’t bother to do my homework because I was more concerned about what kind of damage I was looking at. I decided I was going to try and pull the R5 back up so I could safely take it down. But If anyone knows what kind of luck I have knows that didn’t happen as it was supposed to. The minute I put my hand on it, it came off the gutter and the tower and hit the rot iron railing and then onto the ground. One of the top radials is bent to about a 90 degree angle and since it was a permanent installation the coax was tight and it bent the SO-239 on the feed point. 

I am not strong enough to unbend the radial. I took everything apart to see what other damage done that there was. Took the feed point off and the screws preceded to fall out and theres no real way with out undoing the rivets to get them back in. I have a feeling the feed point is no longer good as it hit the railing pretty hard. 

So needless to say it wasn’t a very good day after that. My 40m wire is also not working the way it should but thats going to be worked out soon. 

I was looking into replacing the R5 but after I looked at the bank account I figured I should make a budget first because that was another scary scene. I financially can not afford to replace the antenna no matter how bad I want to. It just wont happen. I was going to wait and get a QSO King but I have a very strong feeling thats not going to be feasible either. So now I have a VERY nice 891 thats collecting dust. 

What does everyone suggest the next step should be? Ill probably be out of the hobby until I can get this done and I really don’t do VHF that much except to talk to mike. Everything is just to expensive and with out a job theres really nothing I can do. Im really not happy about any of this because I liked that R5 A LOT! Made TONs of good QSOs with it. 

Thanks
Kyle 
KC3FMP