The weather was nice enough for me to get some of my antenna maintenance
done that I couldn't do during the cold winter months. First on the
list was to completely remove the 23cm (1.2GHz) antenna from the top of
the tower. While I've had good luck working stations up into New
England from here on the band the antenna had lost the bolts holding it
to the tower and was now fouling my two meter and seventy centimeter
yagis. I also decided to remove the two meter yagi (13B2) from the tower
and turn the seventy centimeter yagi vertical to accommodate better
communications with the LPEN packet node. I did place a two meter
j-pole at the top to give me local coverage.
In addition to the tower work I was able to clean up a few projects in
the back yard. My four-element six meter yagi has now been disassembled
and stored for future use. A couple of expandable poles that were in
the back yard have also been cleaned up and stored. All that's left is
cleaning up the Butternut vertical antenna. It was taken down for
Hurricane Irene and wasn't put back in service due to several problems I
have had with it at this location (worked great in North Carolina). I'm
hoping my next location will yield a better location for this antenna.
While I got a lot accomplished I did have a little help. Amanda fixed
the j-pole I was installing (needed to be soldered in a couple of
places) and Harlan came out, with wrench in hand, to work on the six
meter antenna. I'm certainly glad I have a supportive family!