Antenna maintenance

Sun 18 March 2012

The weather was nice enough for me to get some of my antenna maintenance done that I couldn't do during the cold winter months.  First on the list was to completely remove the 23cm (1.2GHz) antenna from the top of the tower.  While I've had good luck working stations up into New England from here on the band the antenna had lost the bolts holding it to the tower and was now fouling my two meter and seventy centimeter yagis. I also decided to remove the two meter yagi (13B2) from the tower and turn the seventy centimeter yagi vertical to accommodate better communications with the LPEN packet node.  I did place a two meter j-pole at the top to give me local coverage.

In addition to the tower work I was able to clean up a few projects in the back yard.  My four-element six meter yagi has now been disassembled and stored for future use.  A couple of expandable poles that were in the back yard have also been cleaned up and stored.  All that's left is cleaning up the Butternut vertical antenna.  It was taken down for Hurricane Irene and wasn't put back in service due to several problems I have had with it at this location (worked great in North Carolina).  I'm hoping my next location will yield a better location for this antenna.

While I got a lot accomplished I did have a little help.  Amanda fixed the j-pole I was installing (needed to be soldered in a couple of places) and Harlan came out, with wrench in hand, to work on the six meter antenna.  I'm certainly glad I have a supportive family!

By Sparks, Category: Radio

Tags: 23cm / 2m / 70cm / antenna maintenance / antennas /