On Sat, Oct 29, 2022 at 12:51 PM, Tracey Gardner wrote:

Hello Max

 

Up here in Lincolnshire, I had a 550m long west/east Beverage run alongside a hedge supported on electric fence posts for a few years.

The only problem with it was, as you say, that I had to take it down and reel all 550m of wire in and gather all the fence posts in every time that the farmer wanted to cut his hedge or cut the set-aside strip around the edge of the field.

Hi Tracey

Yes, I feel your pain. Our hedges are all hawthorn and it's no joke getting spiked, even through welders' gloves!

The big question is, was it worth it? Wonder what the real-life performance of the antenna proved to be like? Was it significantly better (or worse) than, say, a Wellbrook (or derivative) active loop, for example? I've often wondered.

73

Max

I think I feel your pain. Out here in So Cal's inland low desert we have a somewhat similar gem called Jerusalem Thorn. I think the Jerusalem came from not wanting to use "Jesus", a common exclamation when encountering the bush. It has an array of thorn sizes. Around nearly every branch or leaf there are short 4 to 10 mm thorns. But there are also older bundles of thorns up to maybe 1.5 cm+. (Wikipedia underestimates it dramatically.) They will go right through sneaker soles. I managed to move slowly and carefully to cut off branches to bring three moderately big (5 m or so) bushes over a week's time. At the time we had teenagers using our yard as a thoroughfare. Somehow those branches found their way to the out of the way place they were jumping over the fence. The thick jacket I used to help protect my skin was rather ripped up by the time I am done. Running wire through stuff like that would take uncommon courage. You guys are crazy!

The infernal stuff keeps trying to grow back. And the thorns laugh at thick leather gloves. (It's not as annoying as "puncture weed" which invades houses and bedrooms stuck to the soles of any kind of shoe. But, that's another ramble.)

{o.o}