On 01/11/2011 12:47 PM, Joe from Kokomo wrote:

On 01/11/2011 09:01 AM, wrote:
Thaw creates shower of Icesickles at WAPT-TV

http://www.devilfinder.com
Super Talk Mississippi

Those Icesickles were falling down from their TV Tower.I saw them on
tee
vee yesterday.Those people were runnin and duckin.
Yesterday, somebody at the weather channel said one quarter inch
thickness of ice on a span or overhead wires equals 500 pounds of
weight.
cuhulin

On 1/11/2011 12:44 PM, dave wrote:

It's not icicles, it's radial ice on the antenna. It builds up from
freezing rain, detunes the antenna which makes the antenna warm up and
melt the ice enough to dislodge it. The station should install deicers
or ice shields or both.

Yeah, but...de-icers or ice shields in Mississippi? Who'd a thunk it?

P.S. Don't forget that this is a TV tower, the antenna per se is only a
few percent of the height. I'm sure a lot of the ice came off the tower
and guy wires just due to the outside air temp warming up a bit.

On 1/11/2011 4:17 PM, dave wrote:

You haven't lived until you've been under a VHF/UHF Tall Tower in an ice
storm. You can watch the VSWR meter jump lower as a chunk lets go, then
a few seconds later it crashes on the roof. Great excitement.

Been there, done that, 1000 footer, VHF, one of the stations I worked at
in the Great Midwest (which means deicers* and ice shields*) but still,
truly great excitement.

* did nothing for the ice coming off the guys.