[Lowfer] Meltdown at WC2XSR/13 - Off the Air TFN

[Ralph Hartwell]

WC2XSR is off the air until repairs and modifications are made to the
antenna system.

At about 2155 CDT this evening, two of the three plastic insulators
supporting the transmitting antenna literally burned up, causing the
antenna wire to fall to the roof of the house.  Luckily, this so detuned
the antenna system that no further arcing occurred, and the roof of the
building did not catch fire.

Preliminary investigation indicates that moisture from a late evening
rainstorm allowed high voltage RF arc tracking to begin, which resulted
in the eventual destruction of the insulators.  I suspect that the
switch from 10 WPM CW to QRSS3 transmission aggravated the situation,
since the full carrier power was applied to the insulators for a much
longer period than with the 10 WPM CW transmissions.

I guess its time to dig out those big ceramic dogbones and hang them out
to dry!

In case you want to see the damage 400 watts at LF can do, take a
look-see at this quick middle-of-the-night snapshot of the burnt-up
lower support insulator (the one subject to the least RF voltage, BTW)
at this direct link: http://home.att.net/~shmrg/smoked.jpg  This link
will go away eventually when I get the SHMRG web site revised.

73,

Ralph   W5JGV / WC2XSR / 13

http://home.att.net/~shmrg

http://home.att.net/~ralph.hartwell