Up to W4CYS in Culpeper, VA to start…digging in the dirt for Hank’s new 130-ft Rohn 55G tower. Hard, slow going, with temps hitting 98 degrees. Not much fun, even six feet down in the ground, wire-tieing the rebar cage together. Managed to get the holes dug & the cages for base & the three elevated guy posts done. Then off to Maryland, where the PVRC gang did their usual Field Day Extreme–24A this year! Managed 10,500 Qs despite lousy conditions on Sunday. Then a couple days of work at LPL’s taking down old 10M Yagis, in preparation for installing them as a three stack on the 40M tower. God is it hard to climb/work on AB-105 without steps! I honestly don’t see how Frank does it so easily. A new dedicated four stack of OWAs planned for the rotating 10M tower! And Frank insists we’ll get the 8-circle array for 80M up this year, too! A quick side trip (after a serious downpour stopped tower work) to Dillsburg Aeroplane Works netted me parts for various client’s jobs & LPL the tubing for his OWA 10M elements. Then headed off to N6CY’s where we took down his MA-550, which I just put up a few years back. But Uncle Sam has transferred Rick to San Diego, so down it came. Have the XR-5 Yagi for sale, too. Then over to W3CIM’s, in Herndon. Restringing his MA-40 (notice the pattern….?) was the first order of business. Took me most of a bottle of PB Blaster to get the 40-year old mast apart & ready for the cable. Installed new stainless bolts wherever possible. Repaired & installed WARC Cushcraft; the VSWR looks great. Then over to his MA-770. Took down broken A-4. Built new Tennadyne T-8 (forgot how terrible their directions are) & managed (after lots of up/down tries) to get the thing through the tree branches. Myles must have a tree guy remove some branchs before cranking the thing up to full height. Built new DX Engineering 80M dipole but again, his tree guy will have to install some pulleys & lines before tugging it skyward. Home at 5AM on the 4th of July. He sold his Discoverer 2L shorty forty to me for rebuilding as 30M beam for AI0O, we are hopeful that works out as-planned!
Yes, N4RV, N3EON, etc. all still need attention up that-a-way. Have to come right back to finish the Culpeper dig & concrete pour so will attend to you guys on this trip, later this week.
stay tuned
