[ADXA] Wrecked the antenna "farm", and other

[Charles McKenzie]

Well thats a heck of an ouch!!!!

Charles
KF5TL
________________________________
From: adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net <adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on behalf of rcurt--- via ADXA <adxa at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2025 6:33 PM
To: ADXA <adxa at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [ADXA] Wrecked the antenna "farm", and other

It only took few seconds to wreck the entire antenna farm, but I managed to do it expertly.  Last Monday, while mowing, I managed to hook the ladder line to my 80 meter loop with the roll cage on my mower. Mass carnage was unleashed when it all fell, hitting the reflector of the 6 meter antenna and cocking it at a 45 degree angle, as well as breaking one of the support ropes on the inv L.  The mower didn't even bog down, and I was unaware of what I had done until I turned around at the end of the run and started back.


My shack time had been limited anyway, due to another project that I started from scratch on May 23rd. I knew I really needed to finish it, because I had a deadline, so the antenna repairs had to be delayed.  Yesterday, we finished the airplane project so today, I worked on trying to get something back up on HF.

After several errant casts with the rod and reel, we finally got a line over a really nice "Free Range Tower" (aka tree).  The 160 meter inverted L was pulled into place. I had rolled all the radials up due to mowing, so they were all just curled up around the feed point.

Wanting to test, I saw that JW0V was on ft8 20 meters, so I gave him a call with 21 watts and he came right back.

I've still got a mess on the antennas, and a firm decision has not been made on my next step, but I was pretty much ready for a change anyway.

Here is a picture of the completed airplane project which is a prop for VBS at our church. It was a fun project and I enjoyed using some dormant "skills" from long ago.

Congrats to all on the ZS8W QSL's and thanks to Lanny for the heads up on JW0V being on the air.

Everyone have a great day and try to stay cool in this heat.

I am now QRV again.
Randy/W5ZJ




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