Bustling about Charlotte, doing various little things, like going to N5AHS’s to stick up his little 30-ft 25G tower (only to be caught up short, pun intended, by a top section siderail filled with galvanizing slag), or like sending Joe to K4BVQ’s, to remove the old 402-CD coaxial cable, from our recent takedown there.
Then, today, up to Winston-Salem, where we were faced with one of those situations it’s always best to avoid–a backyard that’s really too small in which to accomplish the necessary work. The task: remove AI4U’s old X-7 tribander and F-12 WARC beam, then install a new OptiBeam OB-11-5. The OB’s boom is 25 ft long; AI4U’s yard is 25 ft wide. The yard is 75 ft deep; the tower is 70 ft high; you get the idea–things were very, very tight! Any experienced tramming jockey will give you odds those are fighting dimensions, all right. Add to this the fact that I drove about 15 ft into the yard & got the Dakota stuck (everything was still pretty soggy), & you figure the day may just be going downhill fast…this was a yard full of potential profanity-inducing problems! Yet, we persevered & everything came off without a hitch, luckily. I was even totally surprised by the OB’s dynamic balance–it was dead nuts level flying up. Jeff’s A N Wireless is pretty wide, however, & the driven elements would not clear it. So, Jeff climbed up under it, while Joe guided things from above, & KG4KAF stood by the Lug-All & I ran the capstan winch. In another 20 minutes, the beam was up & on the tower.
About the only excitement left was to pull the Dakota out of the soggy yard, pack up, & head to the Liberty Restaurant for lunch. All’s well that ends well, as old William wisely proclaimed way back when.
Next up: local NC/SC jobs
stay tuned…
