Yesterday I got home in the evening, switched the wireless on and had a couple of QSOs, one of which was on 40m. Much later, just as I was about to go to bed my wife suddenly said “Oh, I forgot to tell you, your long dangly thing has fallen down”.
It appears that some time during the day, my 40m dipole broke. The connection from the far leg to the balun snapped at the point where it connected to the balun and so it all dropped onto the floor. I inspected it last night and found the balun laying on the grass with one leg of the dipole attached going up to the top of the mast.
I suppose that’s why I only gave the Spanish station I worked on 40m a five seven report…
I need to fix it as soon as possible, with the dark evenings now I’m finding the higher bands are pretty much closed by the time I get home so it’s important to have a working aerial for 40m.
