Antenna Disater
Antennas
Antenna Disaster 21/22 Dec 2023
Good Morning to all, sad news from here, maybe some of you have noticed my absence in frequency, especially in 30/40/60 and 80 m. FT8 mode, everything is due because a very strong Foehn wind descending from the Alps towards West - North West as always happens with the Foehn (the Fhoen is a dry fall wind and often warmer than the pre-existing air mass, when it occurs in the Western Alps the air currents descend along the Alpine valleys, reaching very strong intensities, and can affect large portions of the plains) in my case it literally destroyed my antenna (the Tower and the Hazer had no damage), the misdeed happened in the night between 21/22 December last year, it reached peaks of 220 km per hour (140 miles), an exceptional speed in this area (another sign of climate change), usually in December/January Foehn winds occur in western Piedmont with peak speeds of up to 100/ 120 km now, on the other hand my antenna has been up for 25 years and I have never had problems before, the dynamics of the accident in my opinion took place in this way, usually I leave the antenna directed against the wind, that is pointing it against the direction of the wind, this is because being very large, in this direction it has less surface to the wind, in this case as you can also see from the photos, there were ascending vortices of considerable power which literally raised the weight of the antenna, decoupling it from the engine so that it turned about 90° to the side and the wind pushed incredibly, bending the Mast, which is also a steel tube with a diameter of 9 cm and a thickness of about 7 mm, note that the mast + antenna have a weight of approximately 3.5 quintals (approximately 770 pounds), incredible, the boom antenna included was duly braced, each single element had its own bracing cables on the boom, what else can I say, a nice Christmas present hi hi, but not I'm discouraged, I'm already thinking about replacing my antenna system, it won't be easy to replace 4 el. quad in 20/17/15 m and 5 el in 12/10 and 6m, 3 el. yagi in 30 and 3 el. in 40 m. but I'll try to do my best, many thanks for reading, I wish all of You and all those in your Family all the best for New Year, 73 and Good DX de Enrico IK1MNJ
