Back in the Harness Again

Yours truly on the tower.

When I moved back from Floyd County a couple of years ago, I did a tower inspection. When I got to the top section joint, about 10 feet above the roofline, I lost my nerve. I checked the bolts, then came slowly down the tower. I haven't climbed since. Until today.

I really had to. All the antennas on the top of the tower show signs of being messed up. Mission today was the WARC dipole. While still resonant on 12m, 17m showed no match, and 30m was way out of band.

I took the ends of the dipole loose, you can see two of the traps around my foot level on the tower. Then the climb to the 44 foot level of the tower. The center of the dipole is a NEMA box U-bolted to the tower leg.

Being up there is a little unnerving at first. You try to stay as still as possible, because each move causes the tower to sway.

Of course, as soon as I got up there, I find I don't have a screwdriver. This is why you always use a ground crew. My daughter Lauren did an excellent job in this department.

With the lid to the NEMA box off, took off the U-bolt, and lowered the dipole to the bottom of the tower.

Once back on the ground, a quick inspection showed what was wrong. One of the 17m traps had a clear open, and it wasn't something that was easily fixed. After 12  years on the tower, the shield braid from the trap coax had disintegrated. The trap needs to be rebuilt. It's companion doesn't look much better. In the interest of keeping them symmetrical, I decided to rebuild both the 17m traps. The 12m traps are a couple of years younger, and look to be in good shape.

After I get the traps rebuilt, it will be back up the tower to re-install. And then I need to lower the A3S down so I can check out the driven element -- figure out why I've lost resonance on 15m and 40m is so messed up.