Made a life changine decision..........

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67Dart273

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I'm simply getting to the age, finances, ambition, and tolerance, I no longer have the drive to pursue amateur radio "much." In fact I haven't been very active for almost 10 years, and less so over the last 3-5 years. I decided that it might come to pass I can no longer deal with the tower, and last thing I need is the liability of the antennas causing havoc in a windstorm, etc

So I've decided to take the vast majority of the antenna stack down.

What will "go back up" is a simple wire dipole, perhaps the vhf/ uhf "stick" and the corner reflector TV antenna.

This mess is mounted on an elevator device which I built and is a copy of a product known as a "Martin Hazer." This is a cage which slides up and down the outside of the tower by means of a winch mounted below

as I sit here, just ate lunch, watchin' Gunsmoke, I have the hazer down to the mid set of guys, with the top guys re-connected. After lunch, I'll climb up and disconnect the mid guys, then winch the antenna stack down to rooftop level. It "sits" down at the level of the rear lean to addition, so there's a fairly flat slop roof to work from. From there I'll take the stack apart

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Looks about the same to me LMAO

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and here I was expecting to see a shiny new 40K mustang


I guess if your passed using them, it makes sense to take them down
 
Here is a depiction of the commercial Glen Martin "Hazer". I bought the top and bottom three pieces from Martin which wrap around the tower, and built the rest out of angle, etc

The rotator bolts to the bottom plate, and the mast goes up through a bearing mounted on the top plate.

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Here is one belonging to someone else getting built

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and here I was expecting to see a shiny new 40K mustang


I guess if your passed using them, it makes sense to take them down


I guess I kept hoping to find the ambition. There are other factors. RF noise. The "noise floor" has gone up intensely over the years, making the lower frequency bands nearly useless. I may build another mobile setup in the pickup.

Yet another factor is I simply don't have the circle of friends I once did. I no longer can stomach some of the stupid "speak" I hear on the amateur bands. I rarely get on the VHF/ UHF repeaters, one time some guy wanted to know "What was my first personal?"

I told him "not sure it was any of his business, but if he had to know, it was about 8 inches."

He never returned, which was fine with me.

Crap like "do ya gotta copy on me?"
 
That's quite an "array" you got there! Tough decision, but good you're thinking about safety.

Reminds me of a story I read a number of years ago about a "Hammer"! It's long but its worth a read.

A story from Charging the Human Battery… 50 Ways to Motivate Yourself

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday morning. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whomever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles." I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.

"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital." He continued, "Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles."

"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.

Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part.

It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail," he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1,000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.

Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.

There's nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.

Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.

It was nice to meet you, Tom. I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 year old man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast."

"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile.

"Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out?

I need to buy some marbles."
 
Just stick an Antron 99 up in a pine tree. lol
 
That's quite an "array" you got there! Tough decision, but good you're thinking about safety.

Reminds me of a story I read a number of years ago about a "Hammer"! It's long but its worth a read.

A story from Charging the Human Battery… 50 Ways to Motivate Yourself

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday morning. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whomever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles." I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.

"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital." He continued, "Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles."

"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.

Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part.

It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail," he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1,000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.

Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.

There's nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.

Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.

It was nice to meet you, Tom. I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 year old man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast."

"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile.

"Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out?

I need to buy some marbles."


so...what you are telling me, is that as you get older, you loose your marbles?
 
Del, you look tired after that climb! I wish I had your tower. Not for ham, but for all the wind generators I'd be able to install on it.

I built the GWEN (Ground Wave Emergency Network - an EMP-proof message system for USAF/SAC) network for RCA/GE in the 1980s and I had a chance to climb a few 300 foot towers. I loved it! I felt like a bird, ready to fly. What a perspective on the world to see it from that height.

Hang in there and keep doing whatever you love my friend!
 
3:30 and I'm done for the day, as in "done for." Next couple of days I'll take the rest of the antennas apart and decide how to reconfigure. I was not going to re-use the hazer but I just might. All that will be up there is the small TV antenna, a wire dipole (off a pulley) and the UHF/ VHF "stick." But if I use the hazer, I will only have to climb halfway up to drop the mid guys, and should not have to ever go to the top.

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Here we are, the hazer down "on the roof." I've removed the TV corner reflector and the huge VHF/UHF TV antenna pointed W on the sidearm.
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Top photo is the "huge disappointment" Not the antenna, the fact that it "wasn't enough." This is supposed to be one of the best long range VHF/UHF antennas made. Has a 14 ft boom. I paid some money for this. I bought it and put it up at the switchover from analog to digital TV. Turns out I cannot get 2, 6, or 22 from Spokane with this. About that time, they put the digi repeaters up on a local hill, and other than a couple of independent stations I didn't need it.

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I put a 'ell of a lot of time and effort into this. This is a homebrew sidearm for mounting the above antenna. I knew I could not aim it accurately, so it's got a small rotator, the antenna hung below it. Last time I went to use it it would not turn, and when I went up earlier this week, I discovered the rotator cable has deteriorated from the sun

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That's quite an "array" you got there! Tough decision, but good you're thinking about safety.

Those yagis are pretty big.

The top yagi is "6 meters" (50 mhz) and in it's day it was a good antenna. The bottom HF tri-band was an excellent antenna in it's day, a Wilson System 1. It's a 26 ft boom, so it's no baby.

How I got that is a real sad story. A real nice amateur in Spokane was killed working on SOMEONE ELSE'S tower, which turned out not to be properly anchored. The tower came down with him on it and killed him.

His widow had my then boss, another amateur, and me take down his tower and antennas. We got all done, my boss asked her "how did she want to handle all this?" Meaning selling it.

"Oh no," she says, "you guys divide it up." So I got the beam.
 
I did 10 years of Ground Radio Maintenance in the Air Force. Notice the word "Ground" About the scariest place I had to go was on the cat walk of the Air Traffic Control Tower!! I don't know how you guys do it...and I commend you for it!! I see you're doing it with safety gear:)

We took care of the all the radio equipment from the handset/headset through to the antenna jack. Antenna Maintenance took it from there!
 
I did 10 years of Ground Radio Maintenance in the Air Force. Notice the word "Ground" About the scariest place I had to go was on the cat walk of the Air Traffic Control Tower!! I don't know how you guys do it...and I commend you for it!! I see you're doing it with safety gear:)

We took care of the all the radio equipment from the handset/headset through to the antenna jack. Antenna Maintenance took it from there!


You may or may not know I was a Navy ET. Spent 4 years at NAS Miramar maintaining GCA/ TACAN
 
I knew you were Navy, didn't know about TACAN! Their shop was next to ours. About the time I retired, the Air Force was combining, ATCALS (radio maint), Navigational Aids (NAVAIDS), and weather. They went to an "Airfield Maintenance" concept. Probably best now that a lot of stuff is going black box repair.

The neat thing about Ground Radio Maint back in the day was, if the base needed something with electricity repaired, they called us. I worked on the NCO club sound system...and worked on a cop car radio. The cops couldn't transmit late one night when they were close to one of their patrol cars. I happened to be at the NCO Club having a few when the cops called my house and got my wife. She told them where I was so they drove to the NCO club and picked me up! Turned out to be a frayed mic cord that would short out occasionally. Replaced the cord and they took me back to the club!! Those were the days!
 
Got a bit of energy this evening and went out and did some more. Took down the VHF / UHF monopole, the camera, slid the 6M beam and HF beam down on top of the hazer "where I could get to them"

Just about that time, the last 15 min, the neighbor asked if I wanted any help, so I took him up on it. He and I removed both beams and laid them on the roof. Tomorrow, I'll take the beams apart

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Below, sun is JUST going down!!

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I knew you were Navy, didn't know about TACAN! Their shop was next to ours. About the time I retired, the Air Force was combining, ATCALS (radio maint), Navigational Aids (NAVAIDS), and weather. They went to an "Airfield Maintenance" concept. Probably best now that a lot of stuff is going black box repair.

I really did not do much with TACAN. Miramar was I would say, "overstaffed." Relaxing stateside shore duty, LOL. But the equipment was well maintained, Miramar was VERY busy in those days. We had two or three guys there had had TACAN C school.

We did surprisingly little cross training with the com guys. The Navy (Treasure Island) back then ran us through part of ET-A school, then divided the class into communications vs RADAR techs, which I was. They told us we could not change, but I wanted to. Of course the way things came out I'm glad I was RADAR.
 
I built the GWEN (Ground Wave Emergency Network - an EMP-proof message system for USAF/SAC) network for RCA/GE in the 1980s and I had a chance to climb a few 300 foot towers. .....

There are not too many really tall towers around here. There are a few 200-300 footers, I've been up a few. This is pretty hilly country, so most towers on mountain tops don't need to be that tall. There are a LOT of little 40-100ft

The KREM channel 2 tower in Spokane is on the order of 8-900 ft, but I've never been up it, and it has an elevator part way up!!
 
I don't think you'd be missing anything by giving up on ham radio, Del. I have been a ham for 55 years and I am very disillusioned with the hobby. I tell everyone who asks me about it to avoid it like the plague.
In 2000 that frickin' Riley Hollingsworth of the FCC Enforcement Bureau wrote me a letter in which he attempted to modify my license without due process as required by Sec. 307(c) of the Communications Act and Section 9 of the Administrative Procedures Act. I told him to go shove it, and I've been telling the FCC the same thing ever since. Now I've got a fat-*** FCC District Director, David Hartshorn, telling me the same kind of BS and threatening to levy a substantial monetary forfeiture against me. I told him to go shove it, too. I am going to fight the FCC forever. They are a rotten, corrupt, out-of-control renegade agency and I have absolutely no intention of listening to their BS.
 
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Sorry to hear that Del but it comes a day when you feel like you have to make a decision. How tall is your tower and which one is it? I'm getting to replace my old tv tower with a new 70' Rohn 45. Health reasons (mainly back pain) have held me up or it would have been up 2-3 yrs ago. I hear ya on what you hear on the bands. As far as the comment of the "first personal" it seems the cb'ers that have gotten their license think everyone talks that way. I was a cb'er too but got my ticket in 2000 and for the first month or 2 just listened so I wouldn't make the same embarrassing mistakes others did. But you know sometimes ya just gotta not sweat the little things. I don't have a HF beam going up. The old trusty dipole and Dentron super tuner has done me real good. I have my first home brew project beam going up on the bottom (6m 6ele on a 20' boom. have worked all the lower 48 with it) a Telrex 1528 and a Cushcraft 729B. As you might tell I'm more of a VHF'er.
 
There's a lot of issues for me

Of course getting older , more frail, and my energy level through the day is not very high. I wanted to get this stuff down before I had to hire it done at expense, or a windstorm caused problems

Not very well off financially, and if I'm not going to use some of this might as well sell it before the value goes completely into the toilet.

The RF noise floor in the neighborhood, and the attitude of the FCC over part 15, after the "BPL" debacle.

The lack of the "old gang" we used to see on 160, 75

The newbies who don't want to learn anything, and who don't want to be told anything

Poor propagation. The last "peak" was dismal.

And a few other things. I was never very good at CW, but my arthritis makes taking notes a pain, as well as even operating paddles is not fun. I don't really want to operate CW from a keyboard.

I've had a bunch of fun over the years. I've been thinking of putting a mobile back in the pickup. I've got a screwdriver antenna which I could rework, and I believe I have what is called a "Swantenna" which could be motorized. This would allow getting away from manmade noise for occasional operations

Swantenna.........I think they were made in a few different models including one motorized one. I think mine is manually "slider" tuned. Been awhile since I looked at it

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My old screwdriver was made by Tom Wilson, KA7W, known as a BB3. I have not conversed with him in a long time. He is or was hooked up with Nott Antennas (Nott ltd?) down in NM. I have an auxiliary coil for 160. I used to use quick connect (brass) air hose fittings above the motorized coil to disconnect the whip. The mount on the pickup, I used a large steam / hydraulic quick connect. Seemed to work OK

A BB3 screwdriver similar to mine

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all I can say is: I hate heights, be careful, and if God wanted ya to climb like a squirrel, he would have made ya look more like a squirrel!!!???????
 
Today I got the hazer (elevator) device off the tower. Decided not to use it at all. Finished taking the yagis apart and stacked temporarily, and strung out the feedlines into "what I will use" and "not use," removed rotator, control cable, and messenger wire.

This afternoon, I climbed up and put the mid guys back up, then went up and hung the VHF/ UHF monopole. I'll have to go back up once more, after modifying the pulley arm (yardarm?) for the dipole pulley, and also hang the TV corner reflector.

Here's some shots from aloftq
Below, random shot holding camera above my head
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Below, top left you can see block used to raise and lower hazer unit, and when cable is unhooked, run over roof to an anchor (tractor) in front, the same winch will tilt the entire down in the back yard. Top right you can just see the mounting for the monopole, and at bottom you can just glimpse my gorilla hook and work belt.

The S shaped tube hooked to the two top guys is a jumper wire, jumpering two of the guys below the insulators. This was an experiment with mixed results, for a ground fed "inverted L" antenna. You feed the bottom of one guy against some ground radials, and the jumper interconnects the two radials. This was not resonant, I may play with it some more later

Guys and clips. They are not "Guide wires" nor are they "cable clamps" and that is not "cable." It is Guys, "guy wire" or "wire rope" and those are properly known as "clips" How do you know which way to apply them? Easy. "Never saddle a dead horse." The body of the clip looks a bit like a horse saddle. You put the clip body on the "live" (working) part of the wire, and the U bolt goes on the "dead" end.

You are supposed to use THREE not two

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Below, the VHF / UHF monopole. This is an import copy of a Comet antenna for 2 meters and 450 mhz amateur bands. I actually have not been on either of these for some time. This is a fair antenna for scanning
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