[SOC] Fw: I owe it all to Jesus.... (loooong)

[Rob Matherly]

Okay, I know some of you guys on these lists (except for one ;^)) will think this is
a load of bunk.  But I know it's the truth and wanted to share it with the guys here
who believe the same.  It's a note I just sent to my elmer (the guy who gave me the
busted beam whose driven element I turned into a tri-band dipole that I'm referring
to).

----- Original Message -----
Subject: I owe it all to Jesus.... (loooong)


...if it twern't for him, I'da died doin' it!!!

Put that dipole on a pipe up next to the house to use in FD today.  The SWR was
around 1.5:1 on 15 and 20 CW.  Still pretty high up in the phone area, but I can
always use the tuner.  It's up to about 2.5:1 on 10, but I don't use that band anyway
:^)

Anyhoo, I unpleasantly was notified that the FD logging program I was using today
only lets you log 30 contacts if you don't register it.  I wasn't about to log by
hand or look around for another program, so I called it quits for the day.  Problem
is, I've got the house all to myself with nothing to do!  (Sent my sister to a
babysitter so I could be alone to work the contest.)

So I gets to thinking, the dipole is pretty good (made a few qso's on it), why not
put it on that pipe by the back door today?  I then think, gee, it'd look great (and
probably work better too) if I put my Ringo on top of that.

So I head out with all my tools (you know, pop, sunflower seeds, that sorta stuff)
and prepare to kill myself falling off the roof :^)  I get the pipe down okay (it
hadn't sunk as far into the ground as I had thought) and take the 10m beam down.
Then the fun part:  Getting up on the roof and taking down my Ringo.

I set up the ladder and think back to the last time I tried to take it down.  I got
to the top, saw the pitch of the roof, and said "it's fine like it is".  I work my
way up, get to the top, and pause, starting to re-think it all.  Then I hear a voice
"you'll be fine Rob, just do it".  So I don't think about the possible repercussions
of what I'm about to do and I just get on the roof.

Now this isn't an ordinary roof - this is the roof of a turn-of-the-century, 2-story
Midwestern farmhouse.  A bit steeper than most roofs nowadays :^)  So I'm up there
crawling to the top, feet slipping, bladder weakening, and I hear, "don't worry about
it, I'll protect you".

So I keep climbing up to the top.  I get my Ringo down (I'm getting the shakes just
thinking about being up there) and start to work my way back down.  I get to the
ladder and think, how the hell do I get off of this roof and onto this ladder?  Again
I hear, "don't worry, I'll help you".  So I put all other thoughts out of my mind,
swing my leg off the roof and onto the ladder, and climb my way back down.

After a 10 minute break to calm myself down, I get all the antennas on the pipe.
Then another tricky part:  Getting the thing back in the air.  So I start to walk it
up, back popping out of place, knees grinding, and it stops - it won't go anywhere.
I look up, and the dipole is caught on my wire.  So I rotate it just a bit to get it
around the wire, and walk it up some more.  Now in case you haven't tried it, it's
pretty hard to lean up 50 feet of pipe and antennas!!!

I'm almost there, then disaster - the base of the pipe starts to slip on the ground.
I'm sure I'm gonna loose the thing.  Then, (this is gonna sound stupid) it's like
someone behind me grabbed the pipe and guided the bottom of it to the lip where the
house meets the foundation.  It's still a pain getting it back down, but it's keeping
it from crashing to the ground.

So after another rest, I hear the voice again:  "Take some of those cinder blocks
over there and set them behind the pipe."

I do that, and it hits me:  That'll keep the pipe from sliding back!  So I start to
move the pipe up again, and it gets caught on the wire bad enough to where I have to
set it back down (almost dropping it in the process).  By now I'm so wore out I can't
even lift my arms or hardly walk.  I'm thinking, Who can I call to come help me with
this?

Then the voice again:  "Try it once more, you'll get it this time".

So I re-position the cinder blocks, and set to try and raise this pipe once more.
Things start to slip, and I'm thinking I'm not going to do it.  Then I feel this
extra burst of energy come on me, and shazam, it's in the air!

I think I'm done.  Then the pipe starts to fall!  I grab it and pull it back into
position.  Now I'm really screwed - if I let go, the pipe will fall.  If I don't let
go, I can't wire it back to the house to hold it up.

Then the voice again:  "Take one of those cinderblocks and wedge it between the pipe
and the steps."

After some manipulation and kicking, the block is wedged in there, and that pipe is
(not quite but almost) rock solid!  Giving me enough time to lean the ladder back up
and re-attach the wire holding it to the house.

I feel very happy at this point (obviously).  I walk back about 100 feet from the
antenna and sit down to look at it.  I notice a few things.  First, my ringo is about
6 feet higher and out in the clear (not next to a lightning rod anymore).  Second,
that dipole appears to have enough room to clear said lightning rod.

And then I noticed the oddest thing of all.  I took a look at it, and it hit me who
was helping me along the way.  The distances from the tip of the ringo to the dipole
to the ground, and the length of the dipole make this thing a perfect cross.  Neat,
huh? :^)

---------------------------

72/73/oo
Rob, W�JRM
ARRL; FP QRP -330; IA QRP #143; SOC #497; QRPp-I #19; Live-Wire #442;

Visit my website! http://www.qsl.net/w0jrm

"Those who control their tongue will have a long life;
     a quick retort can ruin everything"   -- Proverbs 13:3 NLT