Saw the usual pals. Found a few bargains–specifically some FSJ4-50 connectors (Andrew SuperFlex) & bought them all. As I was leaving the table, I noticed some LDF-7 connectors. So, carefully put down the bundle of FSJ-4 connectors, paid for the LDF-7 connectors, & picked stuff back up. Of course, I neglected to include the big 1&5/8 connectors in my bundle!  A true senior moment, I guess. Maybe I will get lucky & the seller will recall reading my callsign badge & contact me? Or maybe he simply sold them again. I discovered the mistake when I got to my storage site, & drove back to the Hamfest, but he’d already left.

Picked up a Johnson Ranger II for $75. Needs a good cleaning, but hopefully will be functional with a little TLC…I’ve always wanted a Ranger, & think the II is prettier than the original model. We’ll see…

Working at W7WZ’s again on Monday, Labor Day, starting on tower two.

Then jumping back on AI0O’s 30M Yagi project, & then hopefully back out to mid-MO to install it once we get the final tower up.

stay tuned

Then the delicate part began–stacking all those antennas on one chrome-moly mast (24 ft) one at a time. Which became just a bit dicey once we got to the C-31—there wasn’t a lot of room left. But all went okay.  Thursday we spent plumbing & re-tensioning the guys, then securing what feedlines we had, along with installing the Prosistel rotator. I’ll be going back shortly to finalize the install…

stay tuned

Planned trip to TN on hold as WB4YDL awaits parts from TIC Ring folks. No sense going over if we cannot do all the work. Scrambling to figure out what to do next or in his stead…maybe this means I can go to Shelby?

ARRL says the tower book on schedule, should be out early next month. Sort of watching their webpage (the new design is not very user-friendly im my humble opinion) and QST for ads.

Local work, maybe we can substitute that…?

stay tuned

Getting close to having all the hardware built for AI0O’s new 2L 30M Yagi. Getting ready (once the truck is done) to head over to TN, for the WB4YDL installation. Then home for a couple of days, then a dash to N VA, the home, then another mad dash to mid-MO, to install the 30M Ybeam…

ARRL says the tower book should be out in mid-September.

stay tuned

In the middle of the night, in pouring rain on the way home, missed a turn and slid into a roadsign (VA DOT placed it conveniently in the middle of the intersection!). So the pickup is in the shop for a few days, ruining any further travel plans.

More wasp stories. Taking this morning’s shower, I reached down for the squeegee used to clean the show stall glass and got stung by a wasp setting on the handle! How and where he came from is a mystery…this has certainly been my summer to get stung from yellow jackets, wasps, and the like.

off to Chicago in the AM to visit Marti’s youngest son…

stay tuned

Next week Marti & I will be visiting her youngest son in Chicago. Hopefully it’ll be cooler there…

stay tuned

The scope of the project was two-fold: design and build a tower suitable for use as a dedicated 160M vertical. Then diagnose and repair the XM-240 Cushcraft shorty forty we installed a couple years back, and which had ceased to work properly about eight months later!

Most readers will wonder why these projects require any commentary, since they sound pretty pedestrian or simple. But the 160M vertical situation is compounded by the county’s zoning height limitation of only 100 feet, and our desire not to use base loading.  And attempts to design a truly functional “tophat” never seemed very practical, considering the 90MPH windzone, making the hat very, very large and requiring serious tubing supplies. My approach was to simply make the top three guys part of the loading.  So, with Phillystran lower and middle guys, the top 3/16-inch EHS were bolted together, then extended up and to the top of the Rohn 25G cap, and then separated by a Phillystran jumper, and then back to steel to the ground, for protection from fire and vandalism.  When we were finished, I was truly stumped to find the structure resonant at 9.62 mHz! Then W3LPL reminded me of the propensity for the little MFJ box to be confused by stray broadcast RF, and with a tower only two miles away, I took Frank’s advice and used a transmitter to find the resonant frequency:  1814 mHz!  What a treat to find the paper design working out so well.

Then it was over to the 90 foot tower and what we’d hoped would simply be a balun changeout, based on various reflector traffic and so forth. Indeed, we had that done in an hour and a half, without any operational changes whatsoever, and so, the decision to bring the whole Yagi down for  a closer look was inevitable. I corkscrewed the beam down the top and middle guys all right, but could not get it by the lower set. In final sweaty frustration, we rigged a hunk of EHS and trammed it down, lopsided and sliding against the guy.

Once on the ground, nothing seemed evident, until we simply tested for continuity from element tip to element tip–in response to some reviews which had mentioned that the enamel wire used on the loading coils had never been cleaned before assembly. Imagine the surprise and anger when we found that none of the connections had the enamel removed before the small sheet-metal screws were inserted. So, while Rob went to the hardware store for some machine screws, to replace the sheet metal screws, I cleaned up all the connections.

Then, it was a relatively simple matter to rig a proper tram line, install enough feedline to balance the beam, and haul it back up into place.  We also moved the resonant point down just a bit.  All in all, fairly successful.  Saturday morning found use preparing the connectors on his new SuperFlex feedlines and installing them.

Hired and brought along Benny, WB4SQC, from TN, for the trip. Having a 2nd climber and willing helper made the project much easier. I’ll be using Benny on some other up-coming jobs in TN, too!

Having lived in Missouri myself in 1981-83, and being pals with Rob, it was truly enjoyable to be out there again, despite the 100-degree days and soaring humidity. Benny was amazed to hear and watch the two of us finish each others’ sentences and casually joke back and forth using routines we’d perfected nearly 30 years ago! Rob’s older son Justin came by to help. How’d he get to be 32 years old?  The passing of time and the memories when we stopped and considered them was simply amazing.  As Howell remarked so long ago, time and distance does make friendships grow fonder.

Next up? Some local jobs. Then another dash West, back to TN, then to VA/MD, et cetera.  The tower book should be out within six to eight weeks, according to the ARRL.

stay tuned

The last trip North began at W4CYS. The pre-inspection was the most rigorous I’ve ever experienced. The inspector went over every detail: measuring and marking and looking at the drawings every few minutes. I used bricks to elevate the rebar cage, and he didn’t like that. Bricks are only 2.5-inches and the drawings call for a three inch separation from the undisturbed soil. But he let it go, finally.  So, as soon as the inspection was completed, we called for concrete. And managed to get the tower base and the three elevated guy post anchors installed. KR7X’s design for the elevated posts had me wondering, as the posts are to be three-feet down in the six foot deep hole. How to support them was my primary concern. Ended up using concrete blocks and simple 2X4s every 120-degrees to plumb and hold them in place. The first pour went off without incident, but on the second hole, the blocks fell to one side as we were easing the concrete in. So, I tugged off my shoes & dropped in to the hole. Somehow, I was able to pull the blocks and the pole back upright. How I ever moved them remains somewhat of a mystery. One of those adrenalin-powered surges, I guess, as the client was aghast and agog, hi hi. The rest of the pour went okay, although we all got wet in the pouring rain. Great help from the local drivers of Allied Concrete, however! Simply the best experience I’ve ever had.

Called N4RV and W4RM for their tower projects, which I was thinking would be next, but neither ever called back or sent emails, so who knows what happened? Jack reads the blog. What’s up…?

Moved to N3EON’s, where his KT34M2 suddenly stopped working. No amount of fiddling with it seemed to help. M2 seems to think it’s loose connections, but Mike Staal told me it’s likely water having gotten into the capacitor tubing. But never able to get anywhere. My MFJ analyzer seems to have developed that loose N-connector malady–the readings are all over the place. Sometimes it said the antenna was fine; other times it agreed with Steve’s rig–the SWR was 5:1, so no definite conclusions could ever be drawn. Bought a new analyzer from Array Solutions.

Headed home after brief stop w/WA2BCK. Looks like we can maybe stick a guyed tower in his backyard after all. 100 feet of 55G is what he wants.

Getting ready to (finally) head West, to AI0O’s, to put up his dedicated 160M vertical. Rob became a GrandFather. Amazing, as I recall playing with his young son Daniel back in the early 80s when I lived in Missouri, and he was a preschooler! Time…boy….

stay tuned!

Yes, N4RV, N3EON, etc. all still need attention up that-a-way. Have to come right back to finish the Culpeper dig & concrete pour so will attend to you guys on this trip, later this week.

stay tuned

Flew down & headed to the ranch (NR5M). Kenny is still suffering from his tower accident there right before the VHF contest. Punctured lung, some broken ribs, et cetera. A classic case of hurrying, working in the rain & otherwise lousy conditions, et cetera. Kenny’s belt simply slid down & off his skinny frame while he was pounding away at the PIROD bolt flange with a 16 lb sledge hammer! The next thing he knew, he was on the ground…

Anyway, we managed to get most of George’s worklist done, before heading to Austin, on Wednesday morning. We drove right to N5TSP’s place, & began to unload & prepare to install his stack of 6M Yagis. K5AND drove up & before you know it, W2GD had the ginpole in place & we were hauling up the new mast, holding it in place with the traditional muffler clamp. I climbed up with the beam, corkscrewing it around the guy wires, then went back down, while John mounted the beam, taped the feedline to the mast, etc. Then it was a simple matter of raising the mast & installing the rotator. While John secured the coax & rotator clamp, I climbed down & came back with the second Yagi. While he bolted it in place, I secured the rotator. Then we aligned & double-checked everything. Four hours from arrival to departure. N5TSP was happy & we were on our way to K5AND’s place!

Dick’s job was to tram up his new 4L OptiBeam 40M Yagi.  We spent the late afternoon clearing the field of the scrub brush & small trees, allowing us space to actually stage the antenna. Thursday morning dawned & we got the tram line in place (3/16-inch EHS), & once the antenna was up & on the line, we found it to be very unbalanced. I’d brought along the tools (just in case) & we discovered it needed 12 lbs of weight to bring it into dynamic balance. Not one word in the manual regarding the condtion, but recent OptiBeam experiendces show this to be the case. By late afternoon, we managed to find some suitable galvanized pipe & got the beam to fly well on the tram. It was up & on the tower in about 15 minutes. Looks good up there. Dick has another tower & more Yagis to go up–probably later this summer.

Friday morning I climbed his little 25G  “house tower,” adding two more sections. That tower will hold all his UHF antennas, with the transmitters & preamps right in the air-conditioned attic!  Then we packed up & went down the road to N5CQ’s. Literally three clients whose QTHs are all visible from each other’s tower! We trammed down his problem C-51XR. I was pleased to discover this beast was well balanced as-is, making the tram job go rather quickly. Then we stuck a C-3 up on the mast in its place, along with installing a new thrust bearing & Orion 2800. Then it was time to pull new control cables & Heliax to the rotating 80M tower. Hot, hard work, by hand, in the high Texas humidity & heat…but all accomplished in short order.

Then Sunday morning we were back on the road to Hempstead, where NR5M had called asking for one more try at the non-working 80M Yagi rotator. This time out, Kenny had gotten us a working power supply & control box, however, & we quickly discovered that there was a wiring error at the junction box at the tower base. Once through that (there are multiple 24-conductor cables there!), we had it turning in short order. The THI was 104 at this point, so the required visits to each tower to work out suitable covers for the K0XG rotator motors went veryyyyyyyyy slowly!  Exactly what we will used remains to be seen. PVC & other slipon covers probably won’t work. A wraparound solution (like a literal jacket) probably required.

stay tuned