[NLRS] Antenna Razing at W0JT/0 -- Success!

[tosca005 at umn.edu]

Words fail me as I wish to express how thankful I am for the friends who 
came out to my home this Saturday to help me take down all of the antennas 
that I had attached to my home and garage. A special shout out to:
  Rooftop crew:
    N0JCF, Chris
    WB0EBG, Ray
  Ground crew:
    KC0IYT, Glen
    N0KP, Dave

I hope that the rooftop crew weren't too upset with how much work it was to 
work on the steeply pitched garage roof. In some respects, I guess that 
working with that rooftop tower was harder than working with a traditional 
tower that you could securely strap yourself to and climb, instead of 
climbing a shaky ladder alongside the tower and moving around on that steep 
roof.

Also, I guess I had made a few installation decisions a decade ago that 
erred on the side of longevity rather than ease of dismantling, so I 
apologize for the extra work that some of those decisions made for the 
crew. I am happy to report, however, that my obsessive-compulsive tape 
wrapping of N connectors was successful, as some of those connections had 
weathered 10 plus years of Minnesota weather and were still shiny when the 
tape was peeled back! ;^)

We managed to get all the hard work done in about 4 hours. Unfortunately, 
duty called Dave away just as the rest of us were able to sit down to enjoy 
a nice dinner together, thanks to my wife's cooking. Only "little stuff" 
remains to be done. With one small exception (placing a PVC cap on the top 
of the pipe that fed all the cables into the garage attic instead of the 
two 90-degree elbow joints that point the pipe opening downwards) I will 
not need to climb onto that garage roof again. Yes, the 8 holes left by the 
removal of the tower fastening bolts are all sealed up. (And I even got 
that done before the rain got here today!)

Seeing all the "keeper" antennas lying on the ground makes me a little sad, 
thinking about the many years of service I got from my home Ham Radio 
station that are now only memories. Not to mention all the memories of 
living in this house for a couple of decades and knowing that when I leave 
it in October it will be forever. (We finally got a reasonable offer to 
purchase the place today and will be signing the contract to sell later 
today, with an official closing date after we get back to Texas, on October 
24th, which we can handle via FAX or email.) Much uncertainty remains about 
the future, but we hope we will be able to come up to Minnesota for at 
least a month each summer, not only to see our Minnesota friends but also 
to escape the 105 degree heat at the peak of the Texas summer season! But 
that's all to be figured out next year.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Material belongings are one thing, but 
friends are to be treasured far, far more. And I do treasure all the 
friends I have made through the years via Amateur Radio up here in 
Minnesota, not just the folks who were able to take some time to come help 
me this weekend to firmly "close the books" on an era of my life, operating 
a home station here in Apple Valley. All of you folks are worth the world 
to me. I will always appreciate having made your acquaintences and having 
in many cases worked alongside you in the hobby.

Of course, it's not quite over yet. I still plan to come out to Buck Hill 
one more weekend for the second half of the 2014 10 GHz Contest. That radio 
system is not packed up, it's still sitting on its tripod in my garage!

73 de John Toscano
W0JT/0, ex-KB0ZEV
ex-EN34js