As some of you might remember, I am having a nearly endless (or so it
seems) saga with my tower in terms of getting it up and going.
Today, however, major progress and no mistake.
1. The Force 12 6BA is mounted on the tower and in the air.
2. The tower went up to 65 feet (and came down).
3. I contacted Angola and Easter Island (Easter Island with 30 watts more
or less of the rear of the beam on 12).
Problems remain, but this is huge, obviously. It's mostly "there" now.
Problems include:
15 meters is tuning above the band. 17 is marginal as well. 20, however,
is superb and 10 is fine. 12 works.
I didn't manage to get the coax for 40 meters in place, so the antenna
isn't on 40 yet. My 20 meter coax had enough slack -- or so I thought --
but is about seven feet short.
I also need to wire up the rotor -- right now, the antenna is pointed 10
degrees east.
And now, a dilemma. I don't know what to do about the truss for the
antenna. The boom sags in its own way just like the elements do. However,
because I have a NN4ZZ tilt plate and because my mast sticks above it
(through the proper "V" slot planned for it) there does not seem to be any
proper way to put the truss cable on.
The cable supplied doesn't seem to be specified correctly. Everything else
was "no measurements" but not this. It is tight on one end, slack on the
other. So, something is wrong somewhere anyway even without the tilt plate
question. The manual, moreover, hints that I don't need it at all (since
it is supposed to be for the "H" model that I don't have or so it says in
that part of the manual).
I need the truss to rotate with the tilt plate, I just don't know how it
could be done without cutting off the mast. Unless I put not one but two
posts on the "tilting" part (the design allows for one -- I'd have to drill
matching holes for the other) and hang the truss wire from each side of the
"V" provided for the mast.
Right now, I don't have any trussing on the antenna, because it can't even
be installed with what I have.
Any 6BA owners out there with any experience or suggestions?
Larry Wo0Z
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