[600MRG] /20 transmit antenna

[Rudy Severns]

I've learned to have great regard for icing on large wire antennas!  The 
antenna itself was undamaged.  The problem was the soil, it was very soft 
and the forces at the top of the poles was great enough to move the base a 
bit causing the poles to tip out of position just enough to detune the 
antenna.  The problem is there's an 80' lever arm on one side of the fulcrum 
(the top of the pipe at ground level) and 7' on the other so there's a lot 
of force right at the top of the pipe at the ground surface.

I've since pushed and shimmed the poles back to vertical but I still need to 
fuss a bit compacting the soil around the bases.  The poles went up last 
summer and we had a very dry fall and early winter so the soil backfill 
hadn't really consolidated.  At the last QTH where I had much larger poles I 
put a concrete ring around the base at ground level.  I wanted to avoid that 
here but maybe I'll have to do it.

I'll be fiddling with the antenna for a while before I get back on the air. 
I may even redesign it to have a lot less horizontal wire up in the air. 
Not that we expect such a storm anytime soon but who knows??

73, Rudy