15.02.2022
Bad news: Our great OptiBeam OBDYA12-5 suffered a broken boom due to very heavy ice/snow load combined with high wind speeds. It looks like no regular antenna design can survive the exteme WX conditions that we encounter on Mount Rigi. However, the 6m 5 element OptiBeam ist still doing fine and the 54m longwire although torn apart by the broken antenna was an easy fix and works OK. The OBDYA12-5 was a fantastic antenna and we already miss it a lot. We hope Tom from OptiBeam will be able to create an antenna for us with a much stronger boom and identical high performance that has a chance to suvive these storms, although we are very much aware that this will not be easy. Sadly below you can find the "final pictures" slideshow from our OBDYA12-5
Infrared night image - not good!
Daytime on site assessment: Total loss!
Boom broken, but the steel rope prevents the loose part from falling down
Marco HB9FLD brings the loose antenna down
HB9RYZ & HB9CQK inspect the mess
The sad remains :(