Order restored from the chaos!
The cow chewed through the feeder about 18" from the toroid. I’ve still got the rest of the feeder with the BNC attached, so I’ll just need to dig out the hot glue, remove the toroid from the old coax, remove the old coax, rewind the toroid and resolder the feeder onto the legs of the dipole. If only had the few tools I need!
Good idea! There are more people killed by cows than bulls!
Glad you saved the radio.
MooRM?
Sorry.
This is where you need to carry a Swiss Army knife or equivalent and a reel of electrical tape. For HF, a simple strip back of the coax and twist together of the ends of the centres and the ends of the braids should get you going. I’ve even run 2m through such a mash up… and repaired a dipole on my 2m beam with a stick and the foil off my sandwiches. Where needs must… 
My Swiss Army Knife was a present from the HB9SOTA group. I have carried it with me every day since they gave it to me. Unless I’m flying of course !
Some luck with the trx and not so much damage on the other parts, it could be worse. So hope you will fix the equipment for the next activation(s).
Your report reminds me of a discussion some years ago.
73, Ludwig
I’ve carried one every day for the last sixty years, in that time I’ve got though just three - they are almost indestructable, and like Gerald I’ve used mine for running repairs to feeders!
Would you rather have a Swiss Army Knife or a Leatherman (which weighs double)?
No one mentioned one of the serious cow problems, so I guess all know that you never get between a cow and her calf.
Elliott, K6EL
Unfortunately most leathermen have locking blades which makes them a bit more problematic to carry routinely over here.
I’ve never had a bad experience with cows but as I’ve got older I have become wary of them. I walked Ingleborough last night and I had to walk through a herd of young cows. The cows were being a bit boisterous so I kept my distance as much as I could and walked quickly! I was worried about meeting the herd in the dark on my way back down the mountain but I only saw sheep. I don’t know where the cows were but I was thankful that they weren’t near the path!
Sorry to learn about your gear, it’s definitely worth squeezing in some kind of back up plan if you can.
73, Colin
Same. Well I actually won mine for leading one of the categories on European SOTA Day. When my DIN cable kept falling out and wouldn’t properly connect in the back of my 817 thus scuppering FT8 operation on Gun G/SP-013 recently, this knife was really handy to strip back some of the plastic coating from the connector and get things going again.
Indeed.
Jimmy @M0HGY (then @M3EYP ) once did so accidentally while walking the Pennine Way in 2006. Suddenly we were encircled by a stampede! Fortunately this came to a halt and the cows moved away, but we’ve been ultra-careful ever since! Liam and I were walking in the Staffordshire Moorlands a couple of weeks ago and spotted that the public footpath ahead would pass between two mothers on one side of the path, and two very young calves on the other. We plotted a very wide detour around the boundary of the field in order to keep well away! (Made me wonder if that action - deliberately leaving a PROW by 100m or so - constituted a “trespass” regardless of the sensible/necessary reason for doing so?)
Really? Or am I missing the joke? Cows only have teeth on their lower jaw and won’t/can’t bite.
In the UK most people seriously injured or killed are farm workers but about a quarter are walkers - usually by being trampled. We forget that they are very heavy animals and although usually docile can be very dangerous when motivated. I always try to give them a wide berth if they have calves when walking my dog near them.
I’ve had sheep bite through my antenna wire on Ingleborough G/NP-005 and try to do the same on Whernside G/NP-004. Fortunately there don’t seem to be cattle on many summits around here.
Trespass is only a civil matter and the landowner would have to prove you’d caused damage so I think you would be ok. And that’s even without considering the reasonable nature of the diversion.
Yes. There was a meaningless joke thread on forum for football supporters (maybe Sunderland) back in 2003 that went viral due to the comments. Most were posted by people having a laugh (possibly when not sober) but there were also posts from the deranged and lunatic element. The whole thing got into a positive feedback loop with those having a laugh winding up the deranged. It was painfully funny if you were aware it was a joke. ( “I could take a cow down with a swift punch to its nose followed by a kick to its udders” type of comment. Followed by many “no you couldn’t… yes I can” replies.)
Surprisingly after 20 years it seems to have succumbed to bit rot and vanished.
Thanks for that Andy. I obviously missed the joke as it involved football - having never ever watched a football match in my life.
News to me, Andy, I thought it was a sexist but amusing reference to how females fight, since cows are female!
Apologies for the poor joke. I wasn’t aware of the football thread, just indulged in a bit of poor humour.
Having a nice ride around the IoW, currently having lunch at the needles. Time left for an ice cream on the way back to the ferry.
Well, in Switzerland the cows often wear a bell.
"Your report is ´bim, bam´ and the reference ´ding, dong´.
So you see that you keep the distance anyway…
