My 260' dipole I've had up in the air for about 30 years broke and was laying on the ground when I caught this bear passing by the house. He is one of many we've seen in our yard this year although usually the ladder line is about ten feet above any wildlife. When this antenna was first installed, I was young enough to climb the big pine tree to attach a rope to a garage spring and the insulating "T" for the dipole legs. This antenna was built by my Ham Radio Elmer Roger who gently nudged Me into the hobby with antenna and radio help. This antenna has performed over the years quite well and only parts have failed over the years.
The pine tree this is attached to has grown and surrounding woods has filled in to the point its actually difficult to get access and see where the failure occurred although after some brushing and chain sawing, I found the rope attached to the spring had broken. I cut enough lower dead branches to use a ladder to try to reattach the spring but as I was doing thing one leg of the dipole broke also. After i examined the break, I realized the wire was very old and becoming brittle. Not surprising with the age of this antenna.
I pondered this for a while and decided maybe it was time to retire this antenna not only because of its age but my age too. Probably not the best idea at My age to be climbing trees anyway. I still have a working inverted "L" that is not as old and seems to be working the low bands fairly well so time to retire the dipole---it served Me well for many years!!
73-Tim
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