Murphy finally decided to venture a little further north than FN43mj.
During the storm last night, the front half of my 2 meter yagi broke off
and was dangling by the boom truss, trying to beat up the 222, 432, and
6 meter yagis. Despite gusty winds and drizzle, I climbed 105 feet to
see what I could do. Standing on the top plate of the tower I was barely
able to reach the boom truss attachment point on the dangling antenna
half to remove it and throw it from the tower. With the wind and drizzle
it was too cold to take the time to lower it nicely with a rope, even if
that were possible in the wind. My gloves were soaked through and I
couldn't feel my fingers by the time I got to the top. At least the
other antennas are out of immediate jeopardy now.
Repairing a single yagi seems like a fairly trivial job but getting to
it isn't. I will have to raise the mast, remove the rotator and
incrementally lower the mast to remove the 6 meter, 432, and 222 yagis.
Each requires several trips up and down the tower to manage a rather
unconventional tram system and backstay to avoid bending the mast. Given
my health, schedule and the neighborhood this will take at least half
the warm-ish months.
I don't want to put things back the way they were. I like the wide
spacing on the mast, but it is too much work when something goes wrong.
But, even if I go with minimum spacing required by boom trusses I will
not be able to reach the top antenna without removing at least one lower
antenna and lowering the mast. I guess at this point I don't have a
plan, but I know I need one! A high strength (climbable) mast would help
but that is not in the cards this year. It might need to become a future
priority.
I still haven't recovered all station function following the demise of
the old shack PC in early January. I have a long term recovery plan that
in many respects will be better than the previous system and have done
some of the building toward that, but still an issue or two to resolve.
73,
Paul N1BUG FN55mf
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