[NLRS] Antenna razing (*NOT* raising) project, help needed

[tosca005 at umn.edu]

As you are probably getting tired of hearing, I am pulling up stakes, 
selling my home in Apple Valley, and moving to Texas to be with most of my 
family. My plan is to return to Texas around October first, whether or not 
the house has sold, since I am currently living with my daughter, 
son-in-law, and grandkids in San Antonio, and therefore have a place to 
live even before selling this place and being able to afford a home of my 
own down south.

Anyway, I will need to take down all of the antennas before October 1, so 
that if/when I get a buyer, the antennas will be gone. It is conceivable 
that the house could sell after we return to Texas, but we all know that 
taking down antennas in December in Minnesota is not a pleasant task, and 
certainly not one I would willingly return here in the winter to perform. 
(I already slid off that garage roof once due to snow and will not repeat 
that foolishness again!)

I am hoping to get some assistance with this process.

If you look me up on QRZ.COM you can see a few pictures that show the 
rooftop tower (Glen Martin RT-936) on the roof of my garage and the 
antennas that need to come down. There are also some other omni's that I 
should be able to manage on my own. Basically, I will put the extension 
ladder from the ground to the eastern edge of the garage roof, and carry a 
folding aluminum ladder up to the peak of the garage roof. I usually bungee 
that to the tower when working on the tower or antennas. Basically, from 
there, we "pick off" the low-hanging fruit (antennas) first, then loosen 
the thrust bearing and drop the rotator shelf to the peak of the roof so 
that the higher antennas are more easily within reach. Once all of the 
antennas are down, then the tower needs to be unbolted and brought to the 
ground. At that point, I'll need to plug the bolt holes in some manner to 
keep the roof waterproof. I'm open to suggestions there, though I have a 
few ideas.

I am willing to give away any of the yagis covering 50-450 MHz. No, I am 
not quitting Ham Radio. It's just that years ago I bought new M-Squared 
antennas for those bands and never got around to mounting them on the 
tower, so I will bring those M-squared antennas with me to Texas for 
installation down there once I get an appropriate place. (My 
daughter/son-in-law's place has a HOA that prohibits external antennas.) 
The antennas up for grabs are:

The yagis I have used for weak-signal modes
 50 MHz:  CushCraft A50-5S 5-element yagi, 12' boom
144 MHz:  CushCraft A144-11 yagi (not sure of the model, I got it used)
222 MHz:  CushCraft 225WB yagi, 10' boom
432 MHz:  CushCraft 719B yagi, 13.5' boom

Other yagis which are coming down that I have used for FM mode
144/450 MHz:  CushCraft A270-10S yagi, 5 elements each band
223 MHz:      CushCraft 224WB yagi, 4 elements on 3' boom

The other antennas coming down which I will be keeping include 902 and 1296 
MHz loopers on the tower, 6M SQ-LOOP (predecessor of the HO-LOOP) omni, 
stacked pair of 2M SQ-LOOPs (predecessor of the HO-LOOP), ARX6 vertical, 
ARX270N vertical, and a Hustler 220 MHz vertical.

The four weak-signal yagis are not junk. They have given me excellent 
service for many years, which contributed to why I was too lazy to replace 
them with the newer M-Squared replacements that I had bought for the 
purpose. The three yagis I used for FM did not impress me very much, but 
y'all know that FM is not a long-distance mode most of the time anyway. I 
was never a "repeater DX-er", I wanted them for contest situations where I 
needed some more QSO's on FM because the SSB/CW pickins were too slim, and 
hoped that if someone was weak on the omni that the short yagi would do the 
trick. It seldom seemed to work that way. Some folks like to use the 
dual-band (2M/70cm) short yagi for satellite work.

Looking at the calendar, August 23/24 is kind of short notice, August 30/31 
is Labor Day weekend so most of you will probably rather be doing something 
with your families, September 6/7 looks reasonable, September 13/14 is the 
VHF Contest, September 20/21 is the 10 GHz Contest, and September 27/28 is 
possible but getting real close to my exit date. So I would like to propose 
the weekend of September 6 & 7, probably Saturday September 6, unless there 
are better ideas. A few folks who are not as fearful as me of heights and 
who, unlike me, still have their original knee joints instead of titanium 
replacements could probably knock off the task in a few hours. My wife is 
volunteering to provide a pasta dinner complete with her home-made tomato 
sauce and home-made meatballs (and probably throw a few Italian sausages 
into the sauce pot) for all who come out. We could also fire up the 
barbecue grill but for some reason she feels shy about volunteering to cook 
on the grill for company, so you would have to do your own grilling if you 
wanted to go that route!

So, are any of you willing to come out and help this old guy dismantle his 
antenna system in exchange for a home-made pasta dinner and possibly a free 
yagi or 6?

John P. Toscano, W0JT
EN34js
5220 132nd Street, West
Apple Valley, MN  55124-8714
Just west of Pilot Knob Road, south of Emmer Place or Diamond Path
http://www.mapquest.com/#bdcd16dd1b10b7ecf2ad0f32