That's kind of how my antennas are up now, the wires anyway but if I need to 
fix anything I take the mast down. the masts go to the ground so I can lower 
them. When I lived with my parents I learned quickly it's a lot easier to 
make them ground accessible.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Ringwald" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2014 3:01 PM
Subject: Text Version - Dumb Things Blind Hams Do


> Dumb Things Blind Hams Do
>
>
>
> As a teenager going to high-school, I lived at home with my parents in a 
> two
> story house. One end of my dipole was attached to a 50 foot telephone pole
> on the back corner of our lot. The other end was attached to a TV mast on
> top of the two story house.
>
>
>
> In order to put my antenna up after it had fallen down because of the 
> wind,
> Several times in the middle of a rain storm with lots of wind, Iâ?Td climb 
> the
> 50 foot telephone pole without a belt, just using the spikes that were
> driven into the pole.
>
>
>
> A couple times when I needed to re-attach my dipole to the TV mast I did 
> the
> following:
>
>
>
> We had a two story ladder. Iâ?Td climb it pulling a folding ladder up 
> behind
> me. Iâ?Td then crawl up to the peak of the roof. Put the legs of the 
> folding
> ladder on either side of the peak of the roof, next to the TV mast.
>
>
>
> Then Iâ?Td climb up to the top of the ladder holding onto the TV mast. 
> Then Iâ?Td
> shimmy up the TV mast as far as I could and attach the guy for the dipole.
>
>
>
> I was 16 years old and had no idea that at any time one of the guys for 
> the
> TV mast could have broken, sending me, the ladder and the mast off of the
> 2-story house.
>
>
>
> When I think of it now, it makes me shutter.
>
>
>
> Like the time my friends and I decided to use a row boat that we had been
> given and fixed up, to shoot the rapids on the American River near
> Sacramento CA. We made it about ½ mile and at about 30 miles per hour,
> slammed into a downed tree and ripped a hole a foot wide in the boat. We
> lost most everything in the boat, lost the boat and had to swim for our
> lives. Yipes, shuttering again.
>
>
>
> -Bob Ringwald K6YBV
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bob Ringwald
> Amateur (ham) Radio Station K 6 Y B V
> Fulton Street Jazz Band
> 916/ 806-9551
>
> If God wanted me to touch my toes, he'd have put them on my knees.