Kevlar and Sheep!

Over the past week, it has been, for the UK, remarkably cold, with a very strong and days-long wind of up to 90mph in places.

In readiness for the wind, I had quickly taken down my 1/4 wave vertical for 20m a day or so beforehand, laying it down on the side of a ditch, where I thought sheep would not get at it.

Baaaa!

After the storm had subsided, I went back to the marsh site to do some work on the shack.

Apparently, green plastic-coated kevlar reinforced antenna wire looks like a tasty piece of long grass to sheep, who promptly took to nibbling on it!  The brutally cold conditions also meant the sheep took shelter against the shack.  I had fixed the small solar PV panel low down, so as to avoid long lengths of vertical RFI radiators.  But the sheep found this very interesting, and had a very unsuccessful attempt at eating that, too! 

Sheep's teeth have no problem cutting through kevlar, as this (very rubbish) photo of one of my radials shows:

Tasty.  For a while...

Still, this is what field activity is all about, so a quick attachment of some spade connectors, soldering the wire and crimping onto the kevlar and coating makes for a perfectly good connection.

Trickle charge PV panel (10W peak), now a bit higher!

 
I've now fixed the trickle-charging PV panel higher up, where it should be out of reach even of cattle, which will no doubt appear in the fields soon.  The main, 100W panel, only goes out during operation, or after a heavy period of use.

Now for a glass of wine!