[BC] The snow mess

[DHults1043 at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/12/2010 2:30:29 PM Central Standard Time, RichardBJohnson at comcast.net writes:
>The idea is to keep icicles from shorting them out. This means that one ball should never drip onto another because when it gets cold after a daytime melt, icicles will follow the drip. If the spacing with the 45 deg angle is sufficient to keep one ball from dripping onto another, then it is fine.
Most of the older tube type transmitters would simple arc across the icicle and melt it, you would hear some popping on the air.  Some would trip off and recycle if they had an arc sensor or a Magaphase.  The newer pulse modulated transmitters and all of the solid states models have VSWR sensing mainly to protect the solid state devices. Of course for a daytimer with a ball gap or improperly mounted horn gap it may mean a trip to the site to get the transmitter on the air after freezing rain or snow.
 
Dave Hultsman