I had one casualty during the 2025 Field Day. I broke one of my trusty linked EFHW antennas from PackTenna. Nothing too major. After about 1.5 years of use on dozens on POTA & SOTA activations, the banana plug that connects the wire to the matching unit failed.
Honestly, I'm impressed it lasted as long as it did. It was an assembly error on my part when I was making the linked radiating wire for the antenna. But it was a simple fix and shows that I need to treat antenna wire on ultra lightweight antennas, like the PackTenna as a consumable.
Made the simple repair by splicing a new plug and using the built in strain relief holes on the PackTenna. The step I forgot on my original build. I had plugs on both ends of the wire before I remembered to run the wire through the strain relief holes..
I hold the links for 15 meters, 17 meters, and 20 meters together by shrink wrapping scrap pieces of wire. Keeps the whole kit compact and light.
