Sorry. The dog (tablet) ate my homework (column). I took a break after writing it (as I usually do, to catch mistakes), and when I got back to it, the column had escaped into big bit bucket beyond.
Anyway, here it is, as best I can remember it.
I hope you aren’t bored with my going on about the doings at VE3RHQ, but here’s another slice.
While waiting for the bus after wrapping up the Commonwealth contest, I noticed that I couldn’t see the end fed antenna on the roof of RAC. I suspected that the wire had separated at the top of the mast.
-If only…
A few days later, after establishing that the snow was gone, we (TXZ VLF FFK with KMV as our inside man) went up to put it back together. Well, the wire was indeed broken where it went from vertical to horizontal. Unfortunately the top of the mast had also broken at the bottom of the uppermost section.
Here’s what we speculate happened: We had two guy ropes on the mast, two sections from the top. For a third, we relied on the antenna. The wind moved the top of the mast around from side to side, wearing the wire, which then broke. The mast, now only guyed with two ropes 120 degrees apart, then continued to move back and forth. Back was OK, but when it moved forth ( away from the two guys, it swung freely until the guys suddenly went tight, whipping the top sections. The sudden stop at the end of their rope caused the top, weakest section to break at the point of maximum stress where it joined the next lowest section.
If you have a better explanation of what might have happened, I’d be interested in hearing it.
In the course of taking it all down we found the telescoping sections didn’t. They consequently didn’t rotate either. It took a few bad words, some WD-40 and some vice grips to convince them to behave. (It didn’t help that the bolts were reverse threaded and had nothing to indicate it.)
Next time:The bolts will be replaced with hex head, standard thread bolts that real tools can work with.
All three guy lines will be used, instead of relying on the antenna to do that job in one direction.
The antenna wire will make the vertical to horizontal transition with something having a bigger radius than a caribiner. We are thinking of using a 3/4″ plastic conduit piece for that job.
Of course all this puts us back in the position where we were before, with a mostly horizontal antenna low over a basically steel roof. In future, we will probably move the end fed closer to the edge of the roof, where only half its field is over a big steel sheet. The mast will then be used as a support for a multi band vertical, which can make good use of that huge ground plane.
Anyway, we expect to have something up and ready for the week of April 18, which is world amateur radio day. The Ontario and Quebec QSO parties are held the same weekend, and we want to be able to say hi to all our friends in the two provinces. Come and join us, whether in person or on the air.
73
mk
Last Updated on 2026-04-03 by Eve