According to an old saying 'When the wind is in the east, tis neither good for man nor beast'. Or as it turns out, it's not great for antennas either!
After several days of strong easterly winds, my 10m vertical finally snapped! It's no big deal as it was a cheap and cheerful half-wave CB antenna and I had gotten four years out of it already.
The problem was metal fatigue at the top of the bottom aluminum section. The X in the photo above shows where it split... the bottom of the antenna is still there on the mast while the rest of the antenna on the right is sticking out of a hedge.
So no more reports on 28 MHz FT8 for a while. I'll have to wait for a nice dry day and see if I'll repair or replace it.
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