[TowerTalk] Swapping out a T2X & Wasps...

[Kimberly Elmore]

Yesterday, the wind was calm enough that I decided it would be a good dayswap out my jammed T2X with one that I'd rebuilt. So, I prepare everything and head up my HDBX48 tower (8 ft of mast above the top with modest antennas: KML-KT34A at top, Cushcraft 40-CD2 at bottom, dipole for WARC in between plus a VHF/UHF discone at the very top and a 2m/70 cm corner reflector near the middle). About 2/3 of the way up, I notice that there seem to be a lot of bugs flying about. I look more carefully and see that these are wasps. Believing that discretion is the better part of valor, I retreat.

"Great, a wasp nest is up there someplace." I get some wasp and hornet killer, go up a ways, and try squirting the stuff up there but it won't go far enough and I can't get a good angle, anyway. I thought to use my pressure washer with some insecticide injected through the injector system, but the motor won't start (something else to fix). Then, lo and behold!, by early evening all the wasps are gone. Vanished.

Armed with wasp killer, I start up again. When I get to the mounting plate, I find that there is no sign of any wasp activity: no nests, nothing. I go about my business, secure the bottom of the mast with SS hose clamps to each leg just above the rotator, and make the rotator swap. Darkness falls and I have to stop, but things are secure enough and I completed it this morning in more wind than I like. Yet, all went well.

I mentioned this to my kids (8 and 7) and they tell me "Oh, yes, Daddy: we see wasps up there all the time." First I'd heard of it.  In all the years I've had this tower (going on 20 between Oklahoma and Colorado) I've never seen the like. Does anyone have a clue as to what's going on? Is there any way to dissuade these critters? I need to go up there again to set up my 160 m shunt feed...

73,

Kim Elmore, N5OP