When we first moved here, I was a bit concerned about ice and snow bringing down my antennas. The first few Hams I met laughed and said the WIND would kill my antennas long before I had to worry about ice and snow getting them.
In early April, we had a severe storm system that went through with rain, hail, and very high winds. Wind speeds were excess of 90MPH out on the plains, like where WWV is located. One of the "Triatic Cables" holding the Capacitive Loading Assembly, aka the "Top Hat", failed, and the other eight wires it supports came down
Full article, with lots of pictures, is here at the WWV Amateur Radio Club website.
WOW! Good linked article and pix.
ReplyDeleteOur WWVB-based clocks are still syncing OK here in AZ even with the lower power output. But then, we're in the near-field for that frequency.
I didn't hear anything about it until this month's newsletter came out. The club president lives about two blocks away, and we have an agreement about who uses what bands!
DeleteOuch...
ReplyDeleteYup. Mother Nature always wins.....
DeleteJust to keep things interesting Gaia has the jet stream touch down. Seems the mountain winds can create low pressure pockets that suck the jet stream down. This happened in Boulder circa 1967. 120 mph was recorded before the instruments were destroyed.
ReplyDeleteThe most recent high wind speeds I've seen have been in the high 90's. Logging chains as wind socks can have value!
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