Today Jan PA0VAJ and Thomas PA1M where here to help to lift the bottum 20m =yuagis in the south west tower. I mounted a tram line to the wower and a pully with a rope to bring the tower to the tower.
Antenna going up with help of the tram line and a pull line.
I started to build two 5 element Op-Des yagis from Innove antennas for the 20m stack.
The yagis have a boom off 9,4 meter.
Last year we put the SteppIR in the south west tower (tower7) to test it. I am satisfied with it and decided to put it up in the multiplier tower. (tower 6). So Thomas PA1M and Jan where here to help. We took it down and we made some arrangements to lift it to the new tower.
The first attempt was not a success because the dipole was not in balance as it has a special boom so that is do not have to lift the banana dipole over the tower.
The top of mast pipe is 3 meter oboe the normal sections off the tower. The mast pipe I can lower tow meters so I can put a yagi in and then lift the pipe to it position again. I do not want to climb on top of the tower. To lift the antenna as high as possible a college welded an attachment witch I can put over the mast pipe. At the attachment I connect a tramline and an extra wire to secure the opposite side of the tower. Also there is a pulley where the rope is connected that pulls the antenna to the tower. Today we first installed the attachment. and made preparations to lift the SteppIR dipole.
Left the pulley to pull the antenna up. On the arms we connect the tramline. The wooden pole is used to put it over the mast pipe. This one is a bit short.
Another step forward.
Today I reconnected the cables witch are switching the gear in the field. I had to disconnect them a while ago because I have made them in a tube and buried the tube under the ground. I aIso buried the coax cables and the power line to the towers.
Two off the four 144 mhz contest systems had some issues during last contest. One tower had a blown up preamp and I was not sure what happened. I had the tower down and replaced the 4 wire witching cable. I also removed some old cables. I think the real switch trouble was in a split connector in in the barn. This part of the station is working again.
Second problem we had was with system two. We had bad swr and bad rx. I had already replaced the rx tx relays on the top of the tower. First we thought it was ok but during als contest it went bad again. I had the tower tilt over and measured it all step by step. This payed of. The power divider was broken. Maybe when I measured it before, it made contact but when the tower moved a bit it lost contact. I replaced the power divider and it is now fine again. During the week I will fire up all four systems and test it with high power before the contest starts.
It just fits with in the wall of the house.
Tower 1 144 mhz down for repair.
Tower 2 tilted over.
See the extra iron tube under the tower. Its for safety.