My xyl and I worked from 9AM until 5 PM today and got everything finished
that was planned (almost). The bloody dead tree caused grief once again.
We had it all together and had the tower nearly pulled vertical with the
block & tackle but ....... When we looked up, we saw that a limb of the
dead tree had reached out and bent the 2M Mast, a couple of 2M elements, and
had knocked it about 20 degrees out from the 6M beam.
So we lowered the tower and straightened the bent elements. We removed the
2M antenna and then slipped the 2M Mast out from inside the 6M Mast. A pair
of 6 x 6 posts served as a "bending jig" and the xyl declared the mast
"straight again."
At that point we had a choice of installing the 2M beam 3-ft from the 6M
yagi, or giving the "High Limb Chain Saw" we brought along for such problems
a try. The saw comes with a weighted throwing bag and the limb is probably
low enough that someone could throw it over - but not me with a torn rotator
cuff! So we tried the Tennis Ball Gun. I managed to fire the line over the
offending limb, but the ball went over several other trees. I tried to pull
the ball back (its weight was needed to pull the line down) but it got
fouled. We saved the line and the ball, but because of darkness on the
horizon, we fell back to shortening the spacing between the 6 and 2M beam.
This time the tower went up and the only casualty was that the 2M bean was
once more skewed by about 20 degrees.
We got the Aluminum Mast and stacked PAR Loops together without any problem.
However the mast is quite flexible until vertical. Initially it "drifted"
to the South and became befouled in trees. We had to lower it and my xyl
made sure it "drifted" the other direction. This worked, but after we had
it up, we found the top antenna befouled in a different tree. A lot of
tugging on one of the top guys broke it free.
The only "gotcha" was that the pair of PAR Loop as skewed 20-30 degrees.
At that point the Almighty signaled an end to the work day with a
thunderclap and the obligatory 5:00PM thundershower. The xyl was heard to
mutter "this isn't fun any more."
So assuming nothing is damaged (!) EM87 will be on 6 & 2 for the Contest -
albeit a bit "wounded." BTW, there's still time to lower the tower and put
the 2M back the way it was - should someone want to go up there with a chain
saw and take down a "hazard tree." :):):)
73 ---> Dave, W9ZRX
_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
|