[PVRCNC] K4MA Station Repair Status

[k4ma]

Spent a good part of Saturday working on repairing the
ice storm damage.  3 wire antennas were down:

1. 160M V
2. 80M CW V
3. 75M SSB V

Started with the 80M CW V which is hung from a tall pine tree.
Main problem was that a big pine limb had falled into the support
line and was wrapped up in it in such a way that I could not get
the balun and feed line to come down.  It took me a good hour of
pulling, twisting, etc. to get the limb free and allow the center
of the antenna to come down.  The damage to the antenna was just
that one side of the V had broke off at the balun, but there was
no damage to the balun.  I just retrieved the missing wire and
pulled the generator out to the antennas to do a little re-soldering.
Pulled the antenna back up, and it checked out great in the shack.

160M and 75M Vs are supported off the tower, so next it was up the
tower to check them out.

This was the first time that I had climbed the tower in at least
a year plus, so I got reaquainted with some muscles that I had
forgotten that I had :-)

The 75M balun was completely torn apart.  Amazing sight.
I will bring it to the next club meeting that I make for
some show and tell.  I suppose you CW ops out there would
say that I should take this as an omen about SSB :-)
Away I decided to give up on the 75M repairs for now
and concentrate on 160M.

The 160M balun was fine, but the antenna wire was gone,
so I brought the balun to the ground and then to the garage
where I just built a whole new antenna.  Then it was back up
the tower with the new antenna.  I reattached the coax and
came back down.  The new antenna was resonate at 1830 on
the first try.

So I'm back in business just in time for RTTY Roundup and
the NAQPs.  And yes, Virgina, I will be able to operate
75M SSB in the NAQP since it is low power, and I can use
the 1000MPs tuner :-)

Good luck to everyone else with their repairs.
Let me know if you need some help.  I would be glad
to try and help.

73, Jim K4MA