Today’s working bee was very productive due to the number of eager members that attended and the sunny (but not too warm) weather. In attendance were Albert, Mark, Brian, Ron, Max, Ian and Dianne, Craig and Sharon and myself. Albert wanted to be closer to the sun so he climbed up onto the roof and started sweeping away all the branches and dead leaves. The rest of us lowered and tilted over the tower to inspect the log periodic HF antenna. It didn’t take long to find out that the metal straps linking each dipole arm was shorting together in more than one place. The main cause of the short circuits was the cracked and corroded insulating spacers that are supposed to keep the feeder from touching. The coaxial cable was terminated in 50 Ohms and tested okay. It was showing signs of superficial cracking on its case but has been taken away for testing. The off-center fed dipole was tested and is working well. New self-amalgamating tape was fitted to the feed-line connector and it was hoisted back up to its operating position. The long wire or inverted L antenna was hoisted back into the air after a new lanyard (whipper sniper cord) was fitted. This involved dropping the supporting pole next to the shack to feed the lanyard through the pulley at the top of the pole. Thanks to the number of strong arms in attendance all jobs were completed without a problem. A sausage sizzle was provided to feed the members after a very productive day. Thanks again to everyone who helped out and enjoyed the day. Bruno Tonizzo VK3BFT
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 17:22:25 +0000
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