Dennis (N8ERF) got the base to tower holes lined up. I find it
difficult to believe I built that base that far off. Actually the bottom
holes were pretty close, but the raising fixture mounts on the bottom
two holes and that leaves a LOT of room for variance at the top hole.
I should have cleaned out the shop and pulled the whole tower in. Then I
could have started out with all the holes matched. Unfortunately my
stubborn streak insisted I could do it, even if I could only work for 15
to 30 minutes at a stretch. If I had the local shop do it, they could
have had the base ready to go in a couple days and in alignment.
At-any-rate, that part is fixed and I'm trying to figure out the
remnants of the original wiring (which was not stock, but jury rigged.)
Right now, I don't seem to have enough wires going into the motor for
two directions. It's 120 VAC. At least the limit switches are there
and it appears they are wired correctly.
I'm going to mount a PVC box for the connections and switches according
to the diagram. It will be a bit simpler though.
Unfortunately at least two of the computers that control the station
need some TLC. This one appears to have been hurt with that lightening
strike to the CAT5 network and has some strange intermittents. I now
have it on a faster, wireless network. There is a new build in the shop
that is nearly ready to go. Then I play musical computers with the
problem of competing with an ever growing number of neighborhood
networks. Maybe time to go with a dish at each end so it will ignore
the neighbors.
I mentioned this one is flaky and I suspected the OS, so I took
advantage of the free upgrade to Win 10. A fast, easy, and trouble free
upgrade. Unfortunately after 10 days, I can truly say with conviction!
"I do not like Win 10" and particularly using "one drive" in the cloud
for searches on my machines (and servers), so it's back to square one
and a complete install of Win 7 U and all other applications.
When finished I want to be able to operate both stations from either
computer. The computers are the easy part.
I haven't made up my mind about the amps as yet. It "looks like I need
to fix two, get rid of 4 and replace them with either auto tune, one
amp (home brew) for each band, or 2 SS amps capable of the legal limit,
any mode, no time limit. I guess I could stay with the manual tune in
here and make the auto tune just for the shop.
If I had use of all my appendages, I'd happily tackle the home brew
approach, but at present that isn't practical. From the other two
approaches are not practical from a budgetary approach as my wife is
noticing how much goes into the 5 computers. That has ended up being
one expensive lightening strike. She apparently never noticed the cost
of flying<LOL>
Don't forget, solid state devices such as ham rigs and computers can be
"hurt" with out an immediate failure. It may take a year or more for the
"hurt" components to fail. The basics of this station were acquired
when I had a good income. Not a pension and SS.<:-)
I need to start with the panel grounds to find out why I've cooked two
(possibly 3) antennas and the finals in two VHF/UHF rigs as an early
part of the "fixing"
The neighbor's bushes out front are already changing color as a warning
that cold weather may not be far off.
--
73
Roger (K8RI)
---
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