This week found W2GD & myself once again “playing in Peoria,” at K9CT’s coming-to-fruition contest station. Our goal? The installation of his new homebrewed 3L 80M Yagi! At 660 lbs, it’s the largest antenna we have ever put in the air, all right. Understand we had some sleepless nights & careful consideration regarding our usual pre-visualization thinking. But the beam went up & on the tower very smoothly, landing in the oversized K0XG cradle perfectly. Then the excitement began. With no real solid way to secure the beam while installing all 14 of the 1/2-inch bolts holding the cradle halves together, the Yagi rolled over on us. (Its truss support arms are nine feet long!) Luckily, we were able to attach the ball to that truss support arm & slowly ease it back up into place. However, there were some tense moments watching up come back upright. And all that stress caused it to be slightly out of plumb. So today, we climbed back up (it’s on 150 feet of rotating 55G) & using a pair of Lug-All comealongs, were able to right it & get everything back in alignment. It looks great, I must say.
Also on our agenda was the installation of the three stack of 10M OWAs, which went off in very short order–less than an hour. And they appear to be working great.
Efforts to remove the steel Preformed Line Products guy grips by installing 502 insulators on JOSLYN bolts worked out just fine, too, although the whole process took us longer than anticipated. I was very chagrined to discover that my new box of JOSLYN bolts was yet another robbery item, alas. And that JOSLYN is apparently in bankruptcy proceedings. HUBBELL strain insulators will probably substitute in future efforts to separate the guy grips from the tower.
The weather was the only real factor in this trip.
High winds & forecast scattered showers kept us on our toes. That, & thinking about that big, big Yagi drifting over our heads!
Off to Indiana next.
stay tuned….
