Rfalconcam Forum

Here's a dilemma. Ospreys have made a nest atop your STL tower. The nest isn't affecting anyone; in fact, it has drawn a crowd to watch the raptors. Things are fine — until your STL starts to fade.

Fig. 1: Any thoughts on how to discourage birds from perching on your STL feed?
An inspection from the ground reveals that the birds are using the STL dipoles as perches as well as tables across which to lay fish while feeding.

Bruce Blanchard is engineering manager for Salisbury University's WSCL(FM) and WSDL(FM) in Salisbury, Md. The college has adopted these birds, which return each year; there's even a webcam so students and faculty can watch the activity. (The solution isn't a hunting rifle!)

Bruce wonders if you have had similar issues with nesting birds and STL antennas. If so, how did you solve it? Bruce doesn't think the tower will handle the wind load of radomes on each STL antenna; are there other options?

One thing that comes to mind, based on similar problems with satellite dishes, is to use something like a CoolWhip container to snap around the dipole. But the question of keeping it watertight could be an issue. Another thought is changing the dipole polarity. Vertical polarity makes the dipole less of a perch, but depending on paths, this may not be feasible.

Move the nest?  I know that the electric companies move them and put up new platforms for the Osprey all the time for the birds (remember my battle with BGE?).  Although, up and down Rt2 and Rt 4, there are nests in and on almost all of the towers and platforms.