The first thing on the schedule was attending the monthly Sky Vally Ham Radio Club Breakfast. In the past the breakfast meeting were held only about 3 minutes from my home, but with the old restaurant closing and my recent move, the travel time is now a little over an hour to the new location at the Mountain View Diner in Gold Bar, WA. The formal meeting starts a 8AM, but I try to get there about an hour before, as several members show up early just to chat.
Later, my friend Jeff - KO7M and I planned to take down a 40 foot tower with a vertical on top.
The drive from the restaurant to the the tower site was yet another hour. We planned to be on site about 11:00AM and planned to be finished around 3pm. The weather cleared and was only threatening rain.
Jeff was prepared with the required climbing and safety gear, and the Gin Pole was at the ready.The home owner and I were the ground crew, attending ropes and providing verbal support.
The top section and the vertical were to be taken down together, thinking that the antenna would weigh much less than the top section of the tower. Wrong! They were about the same weight or at least the center of gravity of each was about same distance from the rope tie point. It was a good thing we had a handling rope attached to the bottom of the top tower section. The two wanted to quickly rotate to the horizontal, but we were prepared. The antenna and top tower section were lowered together without further difficulty.
The three lower tower sections were taken down, uneventful, as planned.
Due to one thing and then another, we did not finish until 6:30pm, and then there was yet another 1.5 hour drive back to home. By the time I got home it was late and I was exhausted (I hate getting old) - but it was a very good day of Amateur Radio.
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Many thanks to my good friend Eldon for all the help taking down this tower. I could not have done it without him. Best 73's de Jeff KO7M
ReplyDeleteJeff, Thanks, Let's do it again!
ReplyDelete