They say if it didn’t blow down it was not big enough, this one was big enough and it did blow, not off but up and over the top of the tower like an umbrella one very windy day in January 1974. I was at work and the XYL called and said the “thing” blew off the top of the tower- WOW, I imagined it in somebody’s living room. In fact it did not blow off it blew over the top, broke in two and slid down about ten feet an hung on the safety cable. When I originally built the thing I rigged this safety line of 3/8 inch aircraft cable from the tower to the four inch diameter boom just in case. I remember I used to laugh when I told people about the safety cable never thinking it would actually blow off the tower. The storm was really a bad one, very high winds with ice covering the boom and elements. In fact a drive in movie screen blew over just down the street from me. It was a very sad occasion, I was the one sad and the neighbors were glad. The obliging neighbors called the building inspector and he was waiting for me when I got down from the top after attaching a rope, disconnecting safety cable and cutting the coax cable and letting it down, smoothly. The inspector notified me that one of my neighbors said that it had blown down three times already this year. This beam worked very well for me for several years.
I apologies for the quality of the photo. Its the only one I have. What you see is what you get. Very narrow beam pattern, that’s not QSB man that’s my beam swinging in the wind.
The omega match was motorized because it was so far out on the boom.