ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: W2GD
Operator(s): K2SG, K2TW, KU2C, N2HM, N2OO, W1GD, W2CG, W2GD, W2NO, W2RQ
Station: W2GD
Class: M/S HP
QTH: SNJ
Operating Time (hrs): 0
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 0 Sections = 0 Countries = 0 Total Score = 1
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
We missed operating the ARRL 160 event for the first time in nearly 25+ years.
Our thoughts were with you this weekend and hope you had fun in the 2012 ARRL
160.
W2GD/N2CW 160 Meter Station Status - An Update:
About one month ago the eastern USA suffered the equivalent of the 100 YEAR
FLOOD. Hurricane and later Super Storm Sandy came ashore just south of our 160
meter contest QTH near West Creek, NJ with 80+ mph winds from the southeast
direction, and then quickly turned into a Nor'easter type storm with equally
strong winds coming from the northeast direction. The first wave of the storm
brought record tide water levels and major flooding, the second took down
thousands of large trees in the region. Some weather forecasters have called
Sandy the 'perfect storm'. The destruction left behind is testament to this
charactorization.
The station site features a 100 meter tall Rohn 55G tower guyed per Rohn
specifications located 170 meters out in a salt marsh. Several years ago the
owner did a major renovation of the tower structure, including a complete
replacement of the guy anchor system. New anchors were screwed into the marsh
mud as much as 15+ meters deep. Given the condition of the guy anchors that
were in place prior to the renovation, the tower probably would not have
survived this storm if not renovated. As it was, the 10x10 foot 'dog house' at
the base of the tower, which housed tower lighting and some UHF point to point
communications equipment was destroyed by the wind and high tides. At the
height of the storm the water depth at the tower was approaching 4 meters (a
record flood level), completely submerging multiple 7/8 inch heliax lines hung
on a string of poles/catanary running 170 meters from the station building out
to the tower. When the storm was over, there were many small boats and other
debris laying randomly about in the antenna field. Somehow our 600' 1/2 inch
nylon pull ropes suspended from pulleys up at 80 meters survived the storm and
are ready for reinstallation of our 160M TX array, which was not in the air at
the time of the storm.
Flood waters came right up to the foundation of the station building which sits
on a small rise at the edge of the marsh. The crawl space was flooded up to the
floor joists. A storage hut we use to store coax and antenna materials was
flooded with 1 meter of water inside. About 300 meters of coax were exposed to
flood waters but seem to test good.
Finally we discovered that our beverage antennas that are mounted on trees
between 1.8 to 2.5 meters high in an adjacent fresh water marsh were completely
submerged under flood waters, as evidenced by finding them buried under thick
reed debris when the flood waters receeded. At the height of the storm the
access road (Murphy Drive - an appropriate street name don't you think) was
flooded and impassible more than 600 meters from the station building.
The station owner with help of many volunteers has since installed a temporary
'dog house' at the base of the tower, installed new electrical service out to
the tower, and reinstalled the tower lighting system. A UHF point to point
comm link used for station audio was also restored and operation of the FM
station (WYRS) has resumed.
There is still much work to be done at the site. Heating and hot water systems
need repair. Some electrical work to resolve service faults remains. The crawl
space under the building needs to be cleaned out and action taken to remediate
against mold growth.
>From an amateur radio standpoint, we need to test the 7/8 heliax runs used to
feed our multi-element wire 160 TX array, that were submerged during the flood
and run from the tower to the station building. We also must test and
repair/replace the 8 coax runs buried in conduits used to bring beverage feed
lines indoors. So far 3 of the 8 beverages have been walked and repaired,
relocating elements over the many large fallen trees. An aside, not a single
beverage wire snapped. We credit purposely allowing the beverage elements to
'float' on top of convenient tree branches and using #12 stranded wire for this
result.
Our core 160 Team along with members of the SJDXA who share the site have a
work party planned for next weekend. Our hope is to install the TX array and
restore operation of the beverages in time to operate the Stew Perry TBDC this
month, and later the CQ160 events in January and February.
73,
John W2GD/P40W
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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