Trips to N2ZZ & W4TUN recently.
Ray’s 6/2M beams were showing weird VSWR readings–especially during rain or even heavy dew.
Once the sun came out & things dried, out, no problems. Stupidly (in hindsight), I decided I could repair the 6M beam in the air, then do the 2M beam, also in the air, by merely lowering the mast down inside the tower. Of course, this went okay, but then the resonant frequency of the 6M Yagi shifted downward, by 3 megs, once I’d installed a new choke balun! Perhaps those are not as useful at VHF as I’ve read…? Anyway, the decision was made to take the 6M Yagi down. I studied the layout & concluded I COULD corkscrew the beam down, around, & through the existingt HF log periodic. After an hour’s struggle, I did have it on the ground, albeit with two broken elements! Ray has now decided to install another LP above the HF log, providing him with extended VHF/UHF coverage. But I’ll be taking down the HF log first this time!
Then a mad dash to N2ZZ’s. Once atop the tower, standing on the SteppIR boom-to-mast plate, the aluminum mast moved & flexed too much, so I was not able to reach the 6M beam, which I’d mounted vertically, to allow me to swing/tilt the SteppIR on its PVRC mount. So, the whole mast had to be lowered on the comealong, shuffling things doward so I could reach the 6M beam. While this is a relatively easy task, it involves constant up/down climbing, as you set/re-set the muffler clamps holding both the LUG-ALL comealong & safety on the mast. In other words, it takes forever. Anyhow, got that done & everything aligned. Made up a short aluminum arm to go on the PVRC mount, to hold all the coax cables out & away from the tower top, over to the Heliax cables. So far, that looks good, although once the rotator is working, we’ll see how the bungle moves around the tower. Next trip will get us
going with the final hookups I hope.
Yesterday, drove to Atlanta to meet with a small, low power FM station start-up. Agreed to install their
120-ft tower (Rohn 45G) at end of July. Drove home afterward. Seemed like a verrrryyyyy long day..
stay tuned….
