Arrived in Happy Valley (where seemingly everyone is NOT happy, at the moment!) & met up once again with W2GD. WA3FET arrived & we discussed, in detail, the situation with the TIC Ring we just installed last month on their new 40M OWA. We climbed up; we checked everything we could think of. Finally, in something akin to desperation, we had Jim run the motors while I tried stopping them by hand. We were stunned to find I could easily pinch the sprocket between thumb & forefinger & simply stop the motors! Gee…no WONDER the damn beam ain’t turning, huh??

TIC is supposedly offering new, improved motors. But we convinced Jim that installing the K0XG orbital ring rotator is probably a much safer & better idea. Now the only thing is to wait for delivery of same.

Headed West, stopping off to visit my Mother, in Killbuck, Ohio. Managed to scoot up to W8AV’s place, where I’d been trying to get to (without costing a small fortune in travel fees) for several months. The work I was supposed to do had been done, but he had two other jobs:
another TIC Ring failure (!) & replacing his T2X rotator. I got those done in short order. Then, headed South the following morning, with a brief stopover in Athens to visit old friend David Prince. Then finally on the road to Charlotte Monday evening. Raining the entire length of Ohio, West Virginia, & Virginia, finally stopping just North of the VA/NC line. Got home between 1-2AM.

Spent today gathering up pieces/parts needed for up-coming trip to MD/VA work after the CQ WW CW contest. Conditions predicted to be super.

stay tuned..