Well, home at last is the weary traveler, home from the tower work trail of trials ‘n tribulations…
Drove out to Peoria, this time to actually erect the 11 K9CT towers: two rotating 195-footers, two rotating 150-footers, a non-rotating 150-footer (all 55G) & a dedicated 160M vertical (130-footer of 25G), & then a four square for 80M of BX64 towers.
The weather was, well, cold. So cold, in fact, that the first crane on site on Monday froze up. Simply too cold for the air supported hydraulic lines! Tuesday, a newer crane arrived, with heaters & fewer lines, taller & heavier, & we had no further problems, despite worsening conditions, which included whiteouts much of the morning hours. With temps hovering in the low teens, one had to wonder if there might not be a better way to earn a living….
But all went well, & we finished up on Thursday afternoon with two OT hours. Craig has posted almost 200 picutres on his Facebook page. It’s a super station in the making, that’s for sure.
Then, I headed down to far W TN, to finally figure out the non-functioning TIC Ring rotator at WB4YDL. Despite having built & installed 6-7 TICs previously, I had somehow installed the mounting tabs on Jamie’s unit with the wrong orientation, which prevented the motor from engaging the gear. Of course, the TIC instructions are totally lax (to say the least) in this regard, & provide no real guidelines. But I persevered & everything worked fine when I finished. THen the long trek home to NC began. Got home at 2AM & simply crashed. K4KL called & wants me to re-secure his rotation loop on the crankup, so off to do that, then picking up the trailer & tower sections so I can head to N VA tmorrow.
Work requests continue to come in…
stay tuned
