RadioBanter - View Single Post

March 10th 06, 05:04 AM posted to rec.radio.shortwave

wrote:
Know of any?
cuhulin

When I was new to the hobby, I didn't know much about getting good
height to SW longwires. As a result, I used to make like a monkey and
climb trees....tall trees...rather than throwing them or slingshotting.
Once when I was about 30 feet up a blackjack tree and nervous about the
height, I was putting the final ties from the wire to the tree when all
of a sudden a transformer blew up just down the block. It was so loud I
dropped the wire before it was secured and fell about halfway down the
tree landing on my side. I looked around after I got over the shock and
peering at me was a large snake (not sure what brand it was)....this
made matters even worse. Since the wire was back on the ground plus the
serpent staring at me motivated me to set a possible world record of
descending a tree in probably less than 10 seconds. Not only did I lose
the wire, I also came down with various scrapes, bruises, high blood
pressure, and a very bad case of ego-kill....my wife and a friend were
watching at the time. I believe that event led me to investigate better
ways to install the high ends of wire antennas. Necessity is the mother
of invention. I definitely climbed to new lows that day.
Thanks for bringing up this topic because I hadn't thought of that in a
LONG time.....it's good to laugh at yourself. In other words, don't
take yourself too seriously. Took me a long time to get that concept
down.