Today I found a jewel in the rubble...
At my office I had a 50' Rohn 25 tower with a Cushcraft A3S tribander rotated by
an ancient CDE rotor.
When I returned to my office about a month ago, I was told the tower had been
blown down. The tower was bracketed up about 18 feet and into the side of the
brick building. The house bracket failed during Hurricane Katrina, causing the
tower to fall. It did not break like the towers at the home QTH. It simply
fell into a security fence around the perimeter of our back lot. The tower
sections had been taken apart and set aside, but there was no sign of the A3S or
rotor. I had assumed they had been discarded.
Today I found the antenna and rotor outside the fence surrounding the back lot.
The antenna had no broken pieces and was still intact, although some of the
tubing of the elements were bent. The boom is only slightly bent. It was in
great condition compared to the 3 Cushcraft yagis at my house. I took it apart
and brought it home. Since I have not discarded the remains of the 3 Cushcraft
yagis destroyed at home, I was able to find replacements for each bent piece of
the antenna from work.
I will be able to rebuild the antenna with what is left of the antennas at home.
I hope to rebuild it this weekend.
Many of you might think this is dubious. But it means a lot to me. As many of
you know, I have won many contests, and achieved RTTY DXCC using lightweight
Cushcraft antennas. I know I will be able to rebuild this antenna. At least it
gives me something to use until the big stuff arrives. I can't even order new
stuff until the insurance settlement is complete. I have no idea when that will
happen.
The rotor appears to have made it out OK too. So with any luck I'll be able to
put in decent effort into WAE on all five bands. I haven't operated WAE in the
last couple of years because it coincides with the opening of duck season.
There will be no duck hunting for me this year.
It gets better each day around here. Maybe tomorrow I'll win the lottery!
73, Don AA5AU
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