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[3830] Re: [SECC] W8JI 160 Contest

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Subject: [3830] Re: [SECC] W8JI 160 Contest
From: W8JI@contesting.com (Tom Rauch)
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2000 13:48:47 -0500
It was great having Bill and Tim here to operate! 

As an additional note to Bill's comments:

> storm the WX guys were predicting.  Tim and I got there a couple of hours
> before the contest and got the tour of all the new RX antennas Tom had
> built this year.  Seems like Tom said we had 28 different RX antenna
> choices this year.  That may be off.  

We had 23 Beverages separated in three groups, and 12 receiving 
verticals. A considerable improvement in receiving capability, before 
the ice.

Three Beverages failed, two were hook-up wire and one was 
number 18 copperweld. The rest were number 14 copperweld, and 
they sprung back up after I cut the broken trees off them. All of the 
receiving verticals survived, except for minor feedline damage 
caused by falling trees.

> By Saturday afternoon all of the transmit antennas that were made of wire
> (including the 4-square) had fallen.  Most of the RX antennas were also
> QRT.  At 4:30pm Saturday the power went out and we decided to call it
> quits.  

Power was restored Wednesday night.

One telephone line is back now (out of three).

All antennas are back up, with the exception of the 300 foot high 
dipoles for 160 meters. 

The 318 foot tower base actually sank 1/2 inch into the ground from 
the weight of the ice!! 

The towers had at least one radial inch of ice on the legs, guy 
lines, and cross members! Properly installed Rohn towers are 
amazing, even the Rohn 25 and 45 towers!

The only yagi antenna that failed was a Telerex 40 meter yagi. It 
has been a constant failure problem anyway, because the tubing is 
so thin. Other than that, the rotating 55G tower is in perfect shape.

Having just repaired the antenna system before the contest, this is 
getting to be annoying!!


73, Tom W8JI
w8ji@contesting.com



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