The flagpole mast broke in the wind about 9:05pm EST or so. I captured the destruction on the Wyze camera that watches it. It snapped right above the point it’s tied to the garage. Fortunately, it fell in an OK direction, so it didn’t damage anything around it.
I could try to put it back up with some spare pieces and guy it next time, or I could try the military surplus mast I picked up at a Ham Fest this past summer.
I’ll be contacting the 985 repeater digitally through Allstar for now.
I watched Youtube and saw a better way to throw the line by cradling the weight on the line and swinging the weight between my legs. It’s much more confident, powerful, and accurate. I threw my home antenna higher in the same tree. It’s so high that I needed to add more throw line now.
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I took down the YAGI flag pole during a tornado warning. While I had it down, I attached the paracord that turns it with zip ties to make positioning reliable and less slippery. I shifted the paracord that secures it to avoid wear, and I straightened some elements.
My 12.5m EFRW at home broke again, so I needed to restring it. The wire breaks at the tie point up in the tree. The kids and I failed to launch it again over the tree with slingshot out the window. I had also tried some small 3d-printed s-biner clips, but they’d release as soon as I launched with the slingshot I got the wire running flat through the other tree instead of up and over.
That didn’t last too long. The wire broke again at the tie point, so I launched it from the street again with the throw line and sockets. I kept it a little looser and switched to a bungee cord to keep it tensioned with some play.
