Hump Day Catch Up

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

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