RD>> I plan on a Linux system for amateur radio use down the road Michael.
 RD>> For now I'll keep with this DOS/NT mess until I get something to
 MS> Sounds fair enough. The goodies you can download for packet on Linux are
 MS> enormous. Everything from 6m RTTY login programs, to satellite trackers!
 I have two sets of install disks here,just nothing to load them in for the 
moment as my systems are used for studying for my exams.
 RD>> survive the ice storms we had in January and some fibre-glass antennas
 RD>> simply snapped from the ice-loading. None of my aluminum antennas were
 MS> Gheez.. Juneish (fall) last year we had a pretty big hailstorm, which
 MS> brought down a small yagi I had mounted about 40ft in the air. When it 
hit
 MS> the bottom, it was a SmAgi (smashed-yagi!) :-)
 Sounds like my trapped dipole turning into a -scrapped- dipole!
 RD>> damaged by ice,but then I was nuts enough to go up the tower twice to
 RD>> knock the ice off the booms with a stick!
 MS> In this area, kids are also a major problem. I put a yagi about 15ft 
above
 MS> my window, just for plain FM (80-180mhz) reception, and when I got home,
 MS> it was on the floor, in bits.
 Lucky for me the dog keeps people out of the yard.
 But the tower is guarded against climbing with a tower guard wrapped around 
it up to 15 feet off the ground and locked to it.
 MS> I just hope no kid does climb one of my masts, falling from 45ft would
 MS> cause somebody a considerable amount of damage! (although it might teach
 MS> 'em a valuable lesson!).
 Probably put a new dent on their outlook.
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