Club Members,

With the WX turning the corner it is time to start the tower repair and antenna project. The first thing I would like to do is ask those who would be willing to help me if they would like to stop over and see the tower close up and get an idea to see what work needs to be done and even suggest a plan of action.

I think the project will be probably done in stages. The first stage would be to lower the tower, (crank down, attach the lifting fixture and to tip it over). The tower lowers down to 21 feet and has to be tipped over to where the bottom three elements can be compressed then removed in order to sit the tower on a 6 foot ladder. I’m not very steady on ladders and don’t have much arm strength so I’ll need help with this physical work in lowering, tipping over, and raising the tower again. This I believe can be done in one or two days. I would like to find out what days are best for members to come over to work with me. I know that there is a lot going on at the club on Saturdays with VE sessions and all and Sunday’s there is usually a pretty big fox hunt. So I think after those activities people are ready for their lunch break and family time. Also with the school winding down there may be activities scheduled that may cut into free time.

The second stage would be once the tower is tipped over I can do most of the work on the ground but may ask for some help with the new lifting cable installation. I’ll be removing the MFJ dipole and stripping the coax out of the bundle. Though I can do most of this myself advice help and kibitzers are always welcome. Also I will be removing the EHUs and sending them off to SteppIR for evaluation and repair. I’ll have to look over the control cables for the SteppIR to make sure there are no frays in the wires that are shorting out on the boom to ground. This is the common problem with SteppIRs where the control cable has a wire that has chaffed and grounds to the boom. I have a few other things that I have to check while the EHUs and elements are off, like there are no blockages in the hollow fiberglass tubes. I also have to “level” the antenna as it is not flat horizontal. And I have to look over the boom wiring to make sure there are no grounds or broken connections. And I’ll redo the weatherproofing on the elements and connector box.

One thing I will need is technical help evaluating the three coax lines. I’ve been able to obtain the loan of an MFJ antenna analyzer and I don’t have any experience with that. So if someone is able to assist me in that I would greatly appreciate it. I am going to try and find a way to coil the dipole coax up at the bottom of the tower perhaps to maybe someday be able to “sneak” a 40 and 80 meter vertical up someplace in back out of view of the “world” and “prying eyes”.

The last stage I expect that is the return of the EHUs from SteppIR will take three weeks to a month and once they come back everything needs to go back together, the tower gets stood up, rotor gets reconnected and the tower gets raised back up to 55 feet again. Once I stand the tower up I’ll be able to reconnect the antenna controller and make tests to see that the SteppIR is performing as it should. Once that happens and the antenna is up at full height I should be good to go from 6 to 20 meters again. Also if the 2 meter coax is good I should be back on 2 meters also. I guess I could also ask for some ideas for a hidden 40 and 80 meter low visibility vertical.

So this is the plan ahead. I suspect that If I can get started in the next two to three weeks I could be back in operations possibly by the end of July if things and WX go well.

Thanks for your attention…

-73-

Al – N1API