The View From The Tower

T-day, as in Turkey Day, not Tower Day.

It’s drizzling & cold, & so foggy we can’t see across the street.

So, a slow day here at home. Leaving tomorrow for Maryland.  Doing the CQ WW @W3LPL’s once again, then tower work up in MD. Booked through Wednesday at this point, then a late night drive home, and then off to Texas again, for an emergency repair on the topmost 10M Yagi in the four stack—-so George can fire all four toward EU for the 10M Contest. Then back home & hopefully catching up with AI0O’s install, along with some of the NC/SC client work which has been piling up. Yes, Larry, this means you!

Yesterday, up in the NC mountains, where the simple replacement of the existing (old!) rotator cable solved the weird problems w/K2SD’s install. While everything appeared to be okay, & Scott assured me the old rotator was okay, the newly lubed & new terminal strip equipped  Ham IV refused to turn.  One of those mysteries of life, as far as I’m concerned. (There were three splices in the line, so I’m taking it on faith that was the failure point, somewhere!) His new T-12 appears to work fb, although I think he’ll have to have some tree work done before too much longer.

stay tuned

Work plans, which included finished the install for K2SD, up  in the NC mountains, slid to a halt today, with rain here, there, & apparently everywhere. Tomorrow’s forecast is more of the same, so we’re hoping for Friday now, to finish the job. Other work is also on hold from the weather.

Fall…it’s a lovely time of the year. Yeah, right, not if you’re trying to do tower work & is constantly raining.

Gathering photographs for the tower book–leastwise that’s indoor work.

stay tuned

stay tun

Home once again….
Another trip to Texas, where the intended focus was some HF repairs & then the ARRL’s CW Sweepstakes, which W2GD & I were primed to do. KU5B was added to the team, & we were suprised to find NX5M thrown in the mix by George, NR5M, at the last minute. The repairs were ready & we managed a slightly-below last year’s score effort, which is again 2nd to W6YI’s multi-op effort. Their six man team was better than us four! For some reason, we could not achieve the hoped for high rates on 40 & 80.

Anyway, after SS, we went back to work on the big M2 2M EME array. George came out on Wednesday & wondered what the huge boom was laying in the yard! He was surprised to discover it was 55 feet long…& it truly is an inspiring assembly. I’m still not convinced putting it atop the LM-470 crankup is a good idea, but so it goes. All my work on converting the tower to handle the small prop pitch AZ rotator went off w/o a hitch, & we were able to fabricate a new top for the tower using pieces & parts okay. The local machine shop did yeoman service machining the needed parts overnight. As always, the K7NV motor turns smoothly, using the Green Heron controller.

Yesterday afternoon, we managed to tram back up the 2M & 6M Yagis atop the 15M stack tower, so George will have some high beams for the upcoming VHF contest. It took us 3.5 hours, not too bad considering all the work involved.

More work remains at the Round Mountain Radio Ranch.

Hereabouts, the WX is pretty wet & soggy–remnants from the Hurricane, off the coast. Local work hangs in the balance. Hope to get to the AI0O job in MO asap….then back to MD/VA at the end of the month for work & CQ WW.

stay tuned….

Well, once again, the best efforts (my own) went West, or in some wayward direction, anyhow. I was not able to post while on the road–either while down in Texas, working at NR5M, nor more recently, while up in MD/VA. Here’s a brief recap:

I went to Texas alone this trip. W2GD was heading to VP5, to ready the station there for some FRC friends, in classic multi-op fashion. I spent considerable time getting the “new” crank up tower installed, where it’s intended that we mount the new M2 2M EME array. I am resisting this rather strongly–the tower is simply too small for such an array, but George is adamant, since Mike Stahl suggests that’s the way to go. But with an H-frame support of 3-inch and 4-inch aluminum, and eight (8) 41-ft boom Yagis, it’s just too much moment up there in my humble opinion. But once that was out of the way, work shifted to getting the station ready for CQ WW Phone. I managed to get the needed simple repairs done all right, but the topmost Heliax connector for the new 80M beam apparently failed on Thursday, sometime after I left. They were able to convince someone to climb up and install a new Leoni connector, replacing the troublesome Andrew ones purchased on eBay. I was home only a few hours, then on the road to W3LPL. Did 15M this time out, as in days of old. K3LR and KC1XX topped the M-M pile this year, with 20M and 18M scores; we had 17M. Then N3KS asked if I could replace his rotator before the ARRL SS, and it only made sense to stay over and do the work, instead of trying to come back. Monday’s work got cancelled (don’t ask), and then Tuesday was just rain, rain, and more rain. On Wednesday, we decided (or I did), to press ahead regardless, and so I spent three hours atop Kam’s tower, swapping a 61-D for a larger 71-D Prosistel. Soaked by the end of the day, but successful.
Quick work trips to Annapolis and Warsaw, VA were successful, and then headed home. A speeding ticket in VA ruined the ride….

As did the dismal Yankee performance in Game ONE of the World Series (finally found it on Sirius).

Playing the usual game of catch up with myself once again.

stay tuned…

Despite best intentions…
Despite plans, schedules,
et cetera…
Two solid days of rain have ended working aloft. NC/SC client jobs
have not happened.

Off to Texas again on Friday morning on Continental, for last minute fixes/repairs at NR5M….

stay tuned

With new helper Shaun Pierce’s help, managed to get 100 ft of 25G up out at the old home site in Gaston County. Well, minus the top star guys, anyway. We planned to finish those today, considering the forecast was for 85 degrees–the nicest day of the week! But the sky opened up about 9:15 & it appears like the rain is here to stay. So…that project is delayed (again). Next week, if possible, hope to get to K2SD & K4MK jobs, before going back to Texas once more. That all depends on whether or not Shaun gets a new cell tower gig, or not. I hate to lose a good worker, but also hope he finds real employment. He’s taking his ham exam tomorrow. It’s great to think about someone so young getting in to this hobby.

I’ll use the day to build a crankup tower pulldown cable for W2GD, instead.

Trips upcoming (other than Texas) include AI0O in MO, W4ETO/W4PRO/W4RM in VA, & W3LPL at the end of the month (to include CQWW).

stay tuned

Home @1AM this morning from worktrip to MD–with the main focus repairs @WN3R’s mountain QTH up in Frederick. A newly fabricated plate to hold a K7NV prop pitch had to be hauled up & installed in Dick’s 120 ft Rohn SSV tower. Not a trivial task, & one requiring a 2nd climber. I’d contacted Shaun Pierce, an out-of-work local cell tower guy, had him install some 25G sections at my place to see if & how we worked together, & once I saw there were no problems or issues, took him with me to MD. Oh for the enthusiasm & energy of youth! He scooted up the tower & was way more comfortable cavorting around on the SSV steel angles than I was, & helped me a lot. The rotator’s mounting location had to be shifted about 18 inches higher, which entailed lots of beating & banging on the old, rusted & heavily painted hardware, trying to level things in the ever-present high winds, & pulling the MonstIR on its three inch chrome moly mast higher, too. Nothing trivial about any of these jobs. But they all came off in the end. It was great to finally tighten the clamp, apply power & listen to the 9763:1 motor whir around, turning the big beam effortlessly at long last! This should solve Dick’s rotator problems, once ‘n for all!
New RG-213 came next, then the dreaded splicing of the 16-conductor SteppIR control cable (how I wish he’d purchased new) & matching up the colors & screwing the tiny, tiny parts together aloft. The winds were gusting to 30MPH again when we finished that & we were both literally shivering with cold. Again, a joy to hear the stepping motors start up & find the MonstIR to be working right once more.

We then moved over to the little 25G tower I’d installed on the previous trip, & put up the newly fabricated shunt feed system I;d made, then laid out & installed 60 radials. Dick will have to finish installing the remaining 40, as w/o the sod staples, the wires were getting too hard to work around, et cetera. The old tower (even though I’d been especially careful) required a jumper from top to ground to ensure continuity throughout, something I’ll include at AI0O’s place when I put up his vertical soon….

Then, after dinner, we watched “House,” showered & passed out.

Tuesday, I delivered some 25G to WA2BCK, who’s “borrowing” it to allow him to test his SteppIR, then we headed for the VA Beach area, to scope out W4PRO’s 45G takedown. I was not able to arrange for a small crane (the new home owner agreed that was a good solution) in short order, so we headed back to NC.

Raining right now, so the main order of business will be unloading the 11,000 ft of radial wire left over from WN3R’s job! (An excellent eBay bargain, I must say….)

stay tuned

Another “exciting” few days on the road, down in Texas. Where they do things large. First stop: N5CQ’s in Austin, where W2GD & I trammed down his 2L 80M M2 Yagi, repaired the obvious broken linear loading parts & trammed it back up, into place on his 200 ft tower.  Only to disctover it’s still not working correctly. We’ve mapped out various ways to repair things w/o removing it. Next time. Then, back over to Houston area, to NR5M’s once again. The order of business this time? A two stack of 9L 10M Yagis (60-ft booms) on new XG ring rotators. And finish construction of the 3L 80M M2 Yagi (this version using the original linear loading design, not the big coils, as in the first one we’d previously installed!). Of course, that meant a third XG ring rotator had to go up. The WX was cold and wet. Parts of the ranch turn into literal muck with moisture, so conditions were not ideal. Another Wal-Mart sweatshirt saved the day….
Finally, Saturday dawned bright and sunny (with no wind, amazingly enough) and George elected to use the ideal conditions to modify the original 80M Yagi, so I spent four hours in the man basket at 140 feet, extending the element tips, in stages, until we reached to VSWR and bandwidth plots we wanted. An additional eight inches turned out to be the magic number. Then I went back to each tip, drilled and bolted things together. The crane then moved to the back 185 ft tower and we literally lifted and dropped the new 3L 80M Yagi  into place in about five minutes! Biggest antenna we’ve ever put up, and also probably the fastest. Simply picked it up & laid it in the cradle. The crane had about 10-15 ft of pick left, making things easy. We were then surprised to find none of the bolts fit! So, spent an hour hanging on to the boom, holding things in place, while George ran out and bought bolts, only to discover the ring rotator had some mis-sized tabs welded in place, making things even more difficult. We managed to work our way around the problems (thank goodness for flat washers), but did not step off the tower until 8:30, in total darkness.

GD will be traveling with other jobs, so I’ll be back to Texas in October by myself. Next planned projects there include the M2 EME array, a 15M rotator repair, and 40M four square.

SC/NC & VA/MD trips up coming now….

stay tuned!

Not much practical tower work this week–no climbing. But lots of planning, materials ordering, client emails & consulting work.

The annual MEN’s physical. The annual Shelby Hamfest. The XYL’s throwing her back out while moving the kitchen table (somehow)!

Off to Texas next week for more NR5M work. Perhaps we can post a few pictures from this trip? Work continues to come in over the proverbial transom…

stay tuned

The day started smoothly enough. Local rental company (RSC) dropped off the 65-ft manlift @7AM, just as promised. I was at the jobsite by 8. Started right up & I moved it into position & had one 2M Yagi & the pair of 432 Yagis off one side of the H-frame by 8:30. Life was good. Then I reached out & turned the key to re-start the lift & come to earth. Nothing. Zip, zilch, zero…thinking it was operator error (this was, after all, a new JLG manlift–one I’d never run before), I managed to get the beams out of the way & tried again. Still nothing. Hmmmmmm…not wishing to spend the rest of the day up there, I called the rental house. Luckily, their repair guy was on another job literally just down the street. They called him & he called me. We ran through the start-up procedure.
I was correct on all steps. But still nothing. So…the repair guy talked me through the emergency lowering procedure & I eased on down to the ground. He showed up in about an hour, took one quick look, & assured me the lift was broken. He then got out his Fluke & discovered a dead short in the solenoid circuit. He spent another hour going over basically every wire/cable from the battery to the tip of the boom. He finally found a short at the boom transition point–right at the man-basket, where all the cables are bundled. He moved all the cables carefully & then simply tie-wrapped them so that the short was gone. Field expedient repair. We both laughed. But he assured me I could get back down using the emergency procedure again, if needed. Managed to finish the job, albeit two hours later than I had thought. Without further incident.

Like Rosanne Rosanna Danna used to say: “It’s always sumpin….~!”

Shelby Hamfest this weekend.

stay tuned