[Nodxa] K8VJG Antenna Party Successful

[John Papay]

There was an antenna work party yesterday (11/8) at
K8VJG to get Ron's antenna repaired after being down
for quite a long time.  Rick K8ZH, Denny WB8K, Mary N8DMM,
Pete N8ATR and John K8YSE spent most of the day working
on it.  In the end, success!

Rick K8ZH spent hours on the tower.  He replaced the jumper
from the StepIR antenna to the mainline coax.  That didn't
fix the problem although the jumper was kinked at the antenna and
the control cable and antenna coax were not strapped together.

The last time the antenna was worked on, it was to repair
the coax and the control cable which had been ripped apart due
to the antenna free wheeling.  At that time the coax running
down the tower was ripped apart at the shield and apparently
the center conductor and dielectric was pulled up the tower
from the N connector junction on the strand about 30' away from
the tower leading into the house.  The center pin of the N
connector was pulled back about 1/4" and that opened the coax.
The system worked after the previous repair but not for long.
The connection was likely just making it at that time and finally
separated causing the coax to go open.

Pete and Denny worked on a new piece of cable that would
run from the pigtail at the top of the tower to the connection
on the strand.  The cable was hoisted up the tower and Rick
connected it and removed the old coax on the way down.  A new
N connector was installed on the end of the new coax and
connected to the N female on the cable going into the house.
The system was tested on 20m with a 1:1 SWR.  Ron was back
in business.

It wasn't a bad day but cold at times when there was no sun.
Rick was pretty cold when he finally got down off the tower.  I
don't know how he stayed up there that long.

Thanks to everyone who helped get Ron back on the air.  He
is very appreciative of the effort.

73,
John K8YSE


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