In mid air!
At 140 feet!
Photos by Ken K9QK, Clay N9IO
This
is VERY cool...
This is what
serious DXers and contesters are all about!
By the way, don't
try this at home!
Jerry does this
for a living with many
years of experience
under his belt...
I think many hams that do
their own antenna
work will get a bang out
of these photos.
This work involved 4 men,
2 on the tower
and 2 equipment operators
on the ground.
The antenna is a 3 element
full sized 40 meter yagi.
The boom is 40' long and
the elements around 67' each.
This antenna is up at 140'.
Yes, that is I out on the
boom.
All this was very safe.
A 40' "gin pole", which
20' is above the tower
was temporarily added to
give us
"extra head room" for rigging
purposes.
I was riding out on a
1/4" steel aircraft cable
attached to a hydraulic
winch/hoist rated at 10K lbs.
Overhead is a 1/2" rope
running over to the top of a
160' tower then down to
the ground to a "rope capstan".
This allowed me to be "
tramed" or raised and lowered
wherever I wanted, out away
from the tower.
I of course was wearing
a full body harness with a
"life line" back to the
tower in case anything failed.
Which I was confident would
not.
Everything went very well,
but these repairs took over
one day alone, because
of the large amount of rigging
to be done first and then
removed later.
Everyone on site had to
work together
to make this repair job
a success.
Recent lightning has had
me very busy getting
the station back in shape
for contest season.
Thanks for viewing
these pages!
73' and best
DX!!!
Jerry Rosalius,
WB9Z
I was riding out on a 1/4" steel
aircraft cable
attached to a hydraulic winch/hoist rated
at 10K lbs.
Overhead is a 1/2" rope running over to
the top of a
160' tower then down to the ground to
a "rope capstan".
This allowed me to be " tramed" or raised
and lowered
wherever I wanted, out away from the tower.
I of course was wearing a full body harness
with a
"life line" back to the tower in case
anything failed.
Which I was confident would not.
This is the entire WB9Z antenna
farm at Crescent City, IL.
The antenna tower I was working on
is the second from the right.
