It was November 12th, 2007 and those of us living in the White Rock area were doing our best to make it through the power outtages that day which were caused by a severe wind storm. For most of the club members the storm was an inconvenience as some were without power for over 14 hours. Ralph was not one of the fortunate ones. He was busy staying warm and out of the wind when he heard a loud crash and quickly he discovered that his worst fears were now reality. The tower and HF beam he had on his roof were now laying across his deck and shrubs. Once daylight came he put out a call to club members for some help moving the tower off of his tree. Jim (VE7UVL), Ken (VE7KBN) and Eric (VE7EGK) were over within the hour and helped move the tower onto the back lawn. Jim then checked over the roof and repaired a small area where the beam had struck the roof on its way down.

Upon inspection of the Force 12 antenna it was quickly determined that it was not repairable.  Ralph had an older and smaller beam in storage so he will be putting it back into operation until he determines what he wants to do for a permanent antenna.  The 80m wire antenna was also slightly damaged but was quickly fixed and put back into operation.

Here a a couple of photos of the poor antenna