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Bob, W8ERD’s SteppIR Saga
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SteppIR is a major Ham Radio antenna system which is being used by all the “Big Gun” stations with great success. (For more click here for the website.) This beam antenna has motors which extend and retract the antenna elements to match the frequency exactly.
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With the demise of Bob’s Log Periodic HF beam in the ice storm of February, 2011, it came time to purchase a replacement. Now, the log periodic was a wonder to behold! So what went up in its place had better be...well, impressive only begins. So Bob begins his series of reports which can be found in installments in the DELARA News.:
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Slide tab X into slot D, tighten loosely using the proper set screw 22, hold for 14 minutes before moving on.
(October, 2011) Word on the repeaters is that Bob, W8ERD, can be found standing amongst piles of tubing, hardware and gadgets as he figures out what the instructions for his new SteppIR beam are really trying to say. Bob will share his project with us as part of our DELARA meeting this month! I thought of Bob when reading this note from KB3OGD, quoted by KB6NU, about installation instructions for a brand of TV antenna. They are as follows:
“WARNING Do not attempt to install if drunk, pregnant, or both. Do not throw antenna at spouse.”
I suppose that condition number three would require condition number one, and eliminate the possibility of condition number two.
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The W8ERD STeppIR Antenna Saga
(November, 2011) I now have all the motors etc attached to the boom and all the connectors and cables are wired and installed (over 100 connections!). Still in my garage.
I am now at the point where they say to do a sanity check on the motors and wiring. The controller provides a test for this, which extends the elements just a few inches, one at a time
To test it, I left the remote cat5 stuff out of the circuit, and plugged the controller directly into the antenna. This failed completely, and I have now learned that if you order the remote control board, then they leave the local driver chips out of the controller. Saves money, but it would be nice if they would say that in the manual and in their sales literature.
So I connected all the remote control cat5 stuff on my bench and tried again. Another failure. If the remote board and the controller are both plugged into their respective separate 24V power supplies, the controller turns off. They are connected only via the cat5 cable. No hope. And this is with the antenna totally disconnected, so it has nothing to do with any wiring errors I might have made with all the motor wiring.
I went thru 3 levels of tech support with Steppir (They are really quite helpful.) They have never seen this problem before (WHY ME???).
They conclude that my remote board is defective and they are sending me a new one. They think it is shorted somewhere, since it is hard to understand why the cat5 cable connection could do anything to just turn off the controller.
So I am dead in the water as far as continuing to assemble and test the antenna, until I get the new board. I hope it works!
And the saga continues…
November 4 - The new remote board has arrived. Not only that, but they sent me ALL the electronics- Control console, remote board, 2 power supplies, all cables and all manuals. WOW!
I put it all together separately from all the old parts, to avoid mixing problems. IT STILL FAILS EXACTLY AS BEFORE.
BUT I HAVE SOLVED THE PROBLEM.
They provide a cross over cat5 cable to connect the controller and the remote board. As a debugging aid, I went to Radio Shack and bought my own cross over cable. I tried it, and VOILA! it works fine. I also tried a non-cross over cable, and that also works in the sense that it does not shut down the controller, although then the signaling does not work, as one would expect.
This means that BOTH the cross over cables they sent me are defective, in the same way. I suspect they have a whole bad batch of them, and they never tested them. I have called them, and am awaiting a callback.
November 5 - Using the Radio Shack crossover cable, the antenna has now passed its sanity check. All the motors run correctly, and the elements go in and out as they should, upon command. The motors are quite noisy, which is a little scary when you first turn them on and don't know what to expect.
I only made one initial connection error, easily fixed by reversing 2 plugs. Now I am ready to move the antenna out to the back yard, so assembly can continue:
Attach the halves of the boom together, while on the saw horses. Insert all 8 fiberglass element tubes into the motor housings and attach them. Fix the inevitable problems that will arise in the above steps. :) Then test the antenna again by running the elements all the way out to the 20M setting and back. Try all bands.
I have a metal detector that will tell us where the elements are inside the fiberglass tubes. Next step is to erect the small portable mast and put the antenna on it. Then put the boom truss together and adjust it properly. Actually apply RF and measure the SWR at a height of about 6 feet.
Maybe we can temporarily hoist it to 15 feet or so for a final test.
November 6 - Gary and Ken came over yesterday and we moved the antenna out of the garage and into the back yard and put it together for the first time. Now it actually looks like an antenna. See the attached photos that Gary took.
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14 Nov - I have identified two additional problems and have solutions in hand.
1. I have the optional lighting arrestor accessory. It consists of a box with 16 spade lug connections and a ground plate. It has MOVs and capacitors to ground inside on all connections. It has to be connected to the DB25 cable between the antenna and the remote driver board. So I decided to do this connection with a short pre-made db25 Y cable. One end to the cable from the antenna, one end to the remote board, and the remaining end connector will be cut off and replaced with spade lugs, to be attached to the lightning arrestor. Very elegant and flexible.
2. My mast is 3" and the antenna assumes 2". So that was solved by getting bigger U bolts and re-drilling the boom to mast plate. Not a big deal. But now I have realized that the same problem exists with the overhead boom truss support cable. It has to clamp onto the 3" mast also. So I replaced its U bolt with the same bigger one as before, made by DX Engineering. Fits fine, but has a big problem. The saddle for the DX Engineering U bolts is very good, but it does not surround the bolts completely. This means it has little resistance to an outward force that would try to expand the U bolt by moving its ends apart. Since that is exactly what will happen with the truss forces, this would lead to complete and catastrophic failure. The original Steppir U bolt had a special extra plate to solve this problem, but I did not at first understand the purpose of the plate. So now I have manufactured a larger plate from aluminum bar stock to fit the new U bolt, and it will prevent any spreading of the U bolt.
16 Nov - The DB25 Y cable arrived. I cut off one end and bared the ends of all 25 wires. Then I learned that there is NO standard color code for DB25 cables. (There is for DB9, RJ45 etc). What a crock. And of course the colors used by Steppir are different from those in the Y cable. So with an ohmmeter I had to trace out each wire. With 25 pins and 25 wires that is 25x25 ohmmeter tests! Fortunately John Beal has suggested that I buy a DB25 breakout card, which I did. It helped wonderfully in reducing the work of identifying all the wires. Now all the DB25 wiring is solved.
17 Nov evening- Now that all pieces parts are here, I marked the outdoor box for all needed holes, and drilled, sawed and gouged the openings, and tested everything for good fit. Only drilled one hole in the wrong place and had to enlarge 2 others.
20 Nov - The antenna arrestor has continued to be a source of problems. I finally got the DB25 wires straightened out and terminated. I cut off the unused wires and taped the cable up neatly. I attached all the wires to the lightning arrestor bolts, but Egad! I was one wire short!
Backtracking revealed that in my cutting off the un-needed wires I had cut off one of the needed ones. Much delay to strip more cable, find the missing wire, solder it back on to the terminated wire, tape it all up again etc.
Then on to mounting the arrestor box. It is about a 3 inch cube, with 16 bolts sticking out the sides for the circuit wires, and two stainless 1/4" bots sticking out the back for mounting. Blast it all my remote mounting box has sides that are too thick for the arrestor mounting bolts to come thru. To remove these bolts requires complete disassembly of the arrestor box, including removal of all 16 internal connections, but I did it. Then off the hardware store to get 1 1/2" stainless bolts. Bought two in a plastic package. Came home to install them. Discovered to my horror that they were not threaded all the way to the head. so they would not work to hold the innards of the arrestor box together. After much gnashing of teeth, I gave up on the stainless idea and used some standard bolts I already had. They are mostly inside the box anyway, and I used stainless nuts outside. Reassembled the arrestor box and all its connections.
Installed the AC outlet box inside the remote box. Only had to rewire the outlet 3 times because I did not realize the topological implications of running the cable and its weatherproof gasket thru all the necessary holes first. I also installed a new weatherproof outlet at the base of my tower, to accommodate the new power cord coming from the Steppir remote control box.
Installed the remote control board and its power supply in the big box. No problems. Connected everything and velcroed the wires in place neatly. Plugged it in and everything seems to work.
The next step will be to take the box out to the back yard and plug it in and try it and see what happens.
26 Nov - Tim Smith K8TBN came over today and climbed the tower to inspect the mast carefully. He found:
1. The lower spliced section of the mast is badly cracked. It is cracked vertically where it was originally welded together to make a tube out of sheet steel. It is cracked horizontally where the bolts went thru it for the splice. I am guessing these are metal fatigue failures, caused by the antenna constantly rotating back and forth in the wind. The lower section is about 5 feet long, spliced to the upper section by an insert that is about 3 feet long.
2. There are TWO thrust bearings. The lower one has never been lubricated because I did not know it was there.
3. There was a wasp nest inside the upper thrust bearing cover. Tim removed it, and we need to spray there again in the spring. Ken had to fight them off previously.
4. The bolts that go thru the mast to hold the splice in place are gradually working themselves out of the mast and getting sheared off. And amazingly that means that the nuts holding them were pulled completely off, and these are grade 8 bolts! One of them was sticking out so far that it cleared the tower by only 3/8". That would have been a mess if it hit the inside of the tower when the rotator turned the mast. Tim cut it off with hacksaw, with great difficulty and effort due to the cramped specs inside the tower.
The future prognosis for the mast is not good, because the remaining splice bolts will continue to work their way out and shear off (especially now that some of them are already gone), eventually leaving the mast to free wheel rotate in the wind.
Since the mast has to be taken out with a crane anyway, just replace the mast with all new technology. Chrome moly steel instead of 40 year old steel that could be prone to further fatigue cracking. This is less work. The only problem is that so far I have been unable to locate 2 1/2 inch chrome moly mast anywhere. I am reluctant to use the smaller 2 inch mast that is widely available, at least for the new lower section. Tim is going to see if he can find it, from contacts that he has. If we can find it, this is the option I plan to follow.
Many thanks to Tim!
And the saga continues!
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Dec 13 - Tim removes rotator from tower.
I send E-mail to M2, asking for the required RMA to send it in for repair.
Dec 16 - No reply to E-mail, so I called them. They said their E-mail had been failing and they had been losing messages.
Promised to send my RMA via E-mail that day.
Dec 19 - Nothing received in E-mail. Called them again. They apologized and said they forgot to send the RMA.
I asked for the RMA over the phone, and they gave to me (at last!) and said they
would follow up in writing via E-mail.
No E-mail was ever received. A week lost.
Took rotator to PakMail and they packed it and sent it UPS. Said it will arrive at M2
Dec 26.
M2 previously said it would take them a week to repair it. Have not heard anything
from M2 so far.
New problem. Recall that Tim and I attached a rope to my 6M beam, to prevent the antennas from rotating in the wind, since the rotor is not there to hold it. We attached the rope fairly loosely, since it did not have to hold much. But now I observe that the wind rocks the antenna back a forth a lot, and the 40M beam is big and heavy, so when it gets to the end of the rope, it stops suddenly, and the angular momentum puts a big horizontal strain on the 6M beam. It can withstand a vertical force with no problem, because it has an overhead boom truss.
But it was not designed to take any sideways force. So my 6M beam is now bent sideways slightly at the center. The front half and the back half don't point in exactly the same direction. Probably not enough to hurt anything, but certainly irritating.
2 days ago I tried to tighten the rope by climbing a step ladder to the place on the barn where it is attached. It was raining and wet, and the ladder slipped twice in the mud and I nearly fell off. I got it only a little tighter, and my son had a conniption later and said I am banned for life from ever climbing on ladders. Hopefully he will tighten it for me soon.
The good news is that I got my computer back from the shop and it now works fine. Only took 3 additional phone calls after I got it home, and many hours of work to restore it from the backup disk. The geniuses at the shop had installed an old version of the OS, and my backup was of the latest version, so it would not work in various strange ways that nobody could figure out. Finally I got to the top guy and he figured it out and told me how to fix the problem. Gasp! I am very relieved about having all my files and E-mail back again. Thank heavens for good backup disks and software.
Then the repair shop sent me an evaluation form to rate their services. I blasted them pretty good.
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January 4 - M2 called with information about the repair of my rotator.
1. The output shaft is broken. No wonder it had a lot of slop back and forth. Amazing it did not break totally free.
2. The motor is running very roughly.
They are going to replace both and send it back to me in about 2 weeks.
They say a wind gust most likely broke the shaft. I have already decided that when this all goes back together, the antennas will be arranged for minimum wind resistance and maximum survivability. They were originally arranged for maximum performance.
My wife was able to tighten the rope holding the 6M beam a little. The beam now looks fairly straight, so perhaps the wind snapped it back the other way again. One wonders how many snaps the boom can take.
The 40M beam is stuck north, and the 6m beam is stuck east.
The white Steppir blends in nicely with the snow on the ground.
The good news is the 30M beam that was installed earlier on the other tower continues to work spectacularly.
I am working into Asia almost daily.
January 21
Still waiting for my repaired rotator to be returned from M2.
I have been wondering how the new mast will go together, so I ordered just the coupler that joins the 2" upper mast to the 2 7/8" lower mast. When It arrived I found it looks like plain iron pipe, 2 feet long.
No holes, no clamps, no instructions, nothing. (They did mention I would have to drill holes.) So I asked them what size bolts to use, and they wrote back 1/2" grade 8 bolts, with 9/16" holes, 4 required. They then also sent me the engineering drawings for the coupler, showing how it all goes together. Basically everything telescopes together to make a round sandwich, 2 feet long. The drawing (I know it is faint) and photo are attached. From that you can see that the coupler is actually a special pipe, which has been machined to just exactly fit between the two masts.
I bought the bolts from the local Tractor Supply place. Note that grade 8 means the strongest bolts that you can buy. Typical bolts are grade 4.
Now I have to figure out how I am going to drill those 4 holes, and it is not going to be easy. The whole thing needs to be assembled and aligned, and then the holes drilled accurately clear thru the whole sandwich. The combined weight of the whole assembly is 285 lbs. EACH SIDE of the sandwich requires drilling thru more than 1/2" of solid steel. This is not a job for a handheld drill, so it will have to be done in a drill press. Obviously I can't get 40 feet of mast into my garage to drill it with my workbench-mounted drill press. My only thought at the moment is to carry my drill press out into the driveway, and lift the ends of the pipe onto jack stands adjusted to the height of the drill press. This will require a bunch of people to lift the mast. And I wonder how many drill bits I will need to get thru a total of 4 inches of solid steel.
After the holes are drilled, all the pipes can be carefully marked, and then disassembled for carrying the to tower site, where it will later be reassembled for insertion into the tower with a crane. Not sure yet how the crane will grab this smooth pipe.
I also worry about how I will take delivery of the masts after I order them. They will come on a truck, at a time which is only loosely known. The driver won't be able to manually lift the masts off the truck, and I surely cannot. Maybe truckers know how to handle such things?
Suggestions welcome on all of this!
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February 15-
My rotator has FINALLY come back from M2. Five weeks after a promised date of 1 week. GASP!
1. They replaced the output shaft, saying it was broken. I asked them to send back the broken shaft. They did.
It looks perfectly fine to me. Nothing broken at all. Nothing worn.
2. They replaced the motor saying it ran roughly. It still runs roughly.
So I called them, ready to ream them out on both counts. But they managed to escape my wrath.
1. They say the interior end of the shaft has come loose from its outer shell. Looks to me like it was intended to work like a bearing since it slides so smoothly. But they say it is supposed to be a press fit and not move at all. They say they now have a new design for the output shaft that is much better and stronger. Yay! I'll bring the old shaft to the club meeting so you can see it.
Tim, you may find it useful in building the new spline bracket.
2. I was ready to hold my telephone up to the motor so they could hear it grinding away. But they say the gear noise is normal, and the noise they heard originally was coming from the motor itself, and that is now gone. So I guess they have wriggled out of that one also.
I hooked up the rotator to the control box, and found it would only turn about 330 degrees. I was ready to roast them about that too. I have a new after market controller from Green Heron that is BY FAR the best rotator controller on the market. But I knew they would not accept complaints about the rotator unless I was using the original M2 controller. So I dug it out of my storage room and connected it up. Of course then the rotator worked perfectly! Back to the new controller. Then it worked only in one direction. I gave up in confusion for a day. Then I realized that the new controller had been unhooked from the rotator while the repair was going on, so its programming was now all wrong. The controller is too darn smart for me. Started all over, reading both controller manuals several times. They of course use different terminology, different terminal strip arrangements, different programming etc. And there are both software and hardware limit switches, and allowed over-travel, and compensation for a slipped mast, etc. Very confusing. I finally gave up on both manuals and figured out from scratch how it had to work, and programmed it by just watching the rotator, rather than paying attention to what the controller was trying to say. After much trial and error, it is now programmed correctly and ready to go back on the tower when the weather gets better. No hope.
The Steppir is of course still on sawhorses in my back yard. But I noted that the ends of the elements on the uphill side of the yard slope are touching the ground. I had visions of water running down the hill and into the ends of the elements, and then into the motors at the center of the elements and freezing and wrecking everything. Considering what all else has gone wrong, I am only slightly paranoid at this point. So one nice day I went out and taped the ends of the uphill elements shut. Hope no water got in there before that. No Hope.
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Well it is finally time to restart this project after a long winter's sleep.
I have been ordering some necessary components:
1. Upper and lower mast sections. They were both supposed to be 22' long, but the lower mast is no longer available in that length, so it is now 11'. Will arrive Monday. The truck driver will unload it from the truck at the road, and I hope to bribe him to drag it up into my driveway. I don't want some scrap metal scrounger to take my masts! They just say sometime between 9 and 5.
2. Two new thrust bearings to fit the new lower mast. The old ones are too small, and need replacement anyway.
One of them is here and the other should arrive soon.
3. 4 lengths of new coax to run up the tower. 3 are here and the last one will come soon. They ran out of coax to make the last length. They are all LMR-400 ultra flex, 125 ft long, with connectors and heat shrink already installed. No more junctions at the top of the tower.
4. New rotator cable, heavy duty, 125 ft.
Here are the things we could do very soon:
1. Drill the mast sections for the joint section and get that all ready to go, Will require significant planning and careful drilling as they are big and heavy. Then mark it, disassemble it, carry it to the tower and reassemble it for later installation in the tower.
2. Finish the new rotator-to-mast bracket that Tim is working in, and reinstall the rotator.
3. Make a final check of the SteppIR antenna. Then carry to to the fenced area behind the barn for temporary storage. My wife is making screeching noises about it taking up the back yard.
Then we are ready for the crane. I suspect we will need at least two crane sessions. Not sure there the dividing line will be between the sessions.
1. Remove the 40M beam from the top of the mast. Store it behind the barn where the SteppIR is. Inspect and refurbish and tighten everything as needed. Leave the old coax hanging on the tower for now. Attach the new coax to the antenna, seal and tape everything, and attach the rest of the new coax in a coil at the center of the boom. Probably need new holes and Ubolts to fit the new mast
2. Remove the 6M beam from the mast, and then ditto as above. First untie the rope now holding it from rotating.
Attach coax and the control cable to the SteppIR as above.
3. Fasten the old mast now in the tower to the crane. Loosen the rotator and thrust bearing bolts. Lift the old mast out of the tower
and set it on the ground, somewhere out the way.
4. Remove the old thrust bearings. Enlarge the center holes in the thrust bearing support plates and the top of the tower, to accommodate the new larger lower mast.
5. Drill new mounting holes as needed in the thrust bearing support plates to fit the new thrust bearings. Put the new bearings in place.
Here I am not sure exactly how to proceed, as everything needs to line up perfectly for the new mast. The tower top hole, both thrust bearing holes, and the rotator attachment bracket.
6.Remove the old coax and rotator cables from the tower and cable support brackets. Note carefully how they were installed, so the new ones can be installed the same way. They must smoothly slide as the tower goes up and down, without snagging.
7. Pick up the new mast with the crane and lower it down into the tower. Tighten the thrust bearing bolts first, as they must support the weight of everything. The rotator must be firmly attached, but not carry any weight.
8. Mount the 40 beam at the bottom of the mast, just above the tower.
9. Mount the SteppIR in the middle of the mast.
10 Mount the 6M beam at the top of the mast.
11. Run all 4 coaxes (one is an extra), the rotator cable, and the SteppIR control cable down the tower, looping thru the support brackets.
12. Hook all cables up to the places they belong. Align the rotator to agree with its controller.
Test everything carefully. Pray for success. Prepare for repairs and adjustments.
GASP!!!
When can we get started?
March 2012 -
The new masts have arrived as scheduled, and it went much better than I had expected. The truck driver asked where I would like the masts, and he carried them up my driveway and set them next to my garage. The long mast is extremely heavy, and he really struggled to carry it. Took him quite a while to recover. (I couldn't help with my bad back). I handed him $20 for his trouble, and he refused to take it.
He wanted to know what the mast was for (he was thinking flag pole), and was interested to hear about my antenna.
He agreed that leaving it out by the road was not an option, as some scrap scrounger would surely take it. A really nice guy!
I was also pleasantly surprised to find the masts had a sheet of paper inside that have a complete chemical analysis of the steel, and mechanical tests of yield, tensile , elongation and hardness. It is an alloy of 11 metals.
April 15, 2012
I am wondering if we could get some folks together this weekend to do the "destruct" phase of this project' That includes removing the 40 and 6M beams from the tower, taking the old mast out and taking the old coax off the tower. Then carry all antennas (including the Steppir now in my back yard) to the fenced are next to the barn, to get them protected from the horses. Getting the Steppir out of the yard will also protect me from She Who Must Be Obeyed. This will require at least one person who can work from the crane bucket to detacht things from the tower. If we can get some folks together, I will see if I can rent the crane.
Either day and any time is fine with me. Please let me know. Thanks!
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Change subject, I continue to be cursed with bad developments. I bought two new thrust bearings to install in the tower. They are big and heavy to hold the 3" mast. They come with grease zerks, so I thought I would check the grease level, by using my hand grease gun > and seeing if they would take any grease. They did. Then I discovered to my horror that one of them is now almost completely frozen in place, and the other is harder to turn than before. I contacted the dealer, and they contacted the factory. The word is that the bearings never need > grease added.
NOW THEY TELL ME! WHY THEN DO THEY HAVE ZERKS? AND WHY SHOULD ADDING GREASE MAKE THEM SEIZE UP? THEY COME WITH NO INSTRUCTIONS AT ALL. AND THE MANUFACTURER HAS NOTHING ON THEIR WEB PAGES ABOUT GREASING. NO HOPE!!!!
I took the zerk out and just a little grease came out, which made no difference.
I had Tim look at them and he is amazed as well. The dealer says the rotator will still turn them, and I should not worry about it. I say baloney. The rotator should not have to exert extreme force just to turn the bearing, at the same time it may be struggling to turn the antennas in a wind. Tim is going to ask a machinist friend of his about this. Anyone have any thoughts about this?
I suspect I will have to buy a new bearing.
April 17, 2012
John and Tim suggested heating the bearing. Tim's machinist friend said to > put it in an oven at 300 degrees. I discussed this with the Oven Chairwoman, > and there was significant resistance. So as a trial, I heated the bearing > with my heat gun for a long time. Grease did run VERY SLOWLY out the zerk > hole, maybe a thimbleful (I had hoped for a gusher). There was smoke, but > fortunately no fire. The bearing now turns reasonably well, but it is still > hot. I am hoping it still turns after it cools off.
April 18, 2012
The bearing is now cool and it can still be turned by hand, so I am declaring victory. Thanks to Joe, John and Tim for suggesting heat. I decided to avoid the gasoline part, as I suspect internal flames would void the warranty.
Bob, K8MP, wrote: Bob,I explained your situation to Mike, W3MC, who makes his living doing tower and antenna work. Apparently he has seen the same problem.He's concerned that the bearings might tighten up again in cold weather.You might want to stick them in your freezer over night and re-check them. Just a thought...
April 19, 2012
Regarding the thrust bearing. After being in the freezer all day, I was still able to turn it by hand. Definitely stiffer than at room temperature, but I think it is OK now.
4/21/2012
John Beal W8SJV came over today and installed new connectors on the Steppir ethernet control cable that runs from the house to the antenna. tower. The original connectors we installed last fall were only temporary for testing. The new ones have strain relief, ground shield connection and weather boot. After only a few setbacks, the cable now tests out perfectly. Thanks John! As you can see in the attached photo, John is having way too much fun putting the connector on at the base of my tower.
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April 23
Yesterday we had a great crew to make progress with the Steppir Installation. This was the "destruction" phase, where we removed everything from the big tower, to make way for modified re-installation later. The 40M and 6M beams were removed, The old cracked mast was removed with great difficulty and had to be cut in many places with a torch. Fortunately Craig W8CR has such a torch and he went home to get it. Tim K8TBN wielded the torch.
It was exciting to see all the flaming pieces of metal cascading down the tower. The Steppir was carried from my back yard to the pasture near the barn. Caution tape (fetched by Joe K8MP) was placed around the 40M beam and Steppir to keep the horses away from them. Our horses of course can read the caution labels. The new mast was carried from the driveway to the pasture. The ole coax and rotator cable were removed from the tower.
Participating were Ken W8SMK, Joe K8MP, Craig W8CR, Joe N8ZGL, Tim K8TBN, Gary K8EHB and Willie the master crane operator. My wife Judy (She Who Must Be Obeyed) and Son Kip also put in cameo appearances. The attached photos provide a summary of the events. Our new ham Jim K would like to help in further activities, so I have added him to this list.
I really appreciate all the help from everyone, especially since I can't lift anything any more. It is great to see people just take responsibility to see what needs doing, and do it skillfully.
Omygosh! I forgot to mention that my wife prepared a very nice lunch for everyone.
April 30, 2012
Now that all the antennas are on the ground, we can see that some of them have corroded parts, since the manufacturer did not use stainless everywhere. Paul N2OPW recommended (and I agree) that we replace all corroded hardware before we put the antennas back up.
I have inventoried all the corroded parts and ordered replacements for everything. This is about 60 parts, not including things like nuts and washers. For example cable clamps holding the boom truss ropes (24), eye bolts, turnbuckles, U bolts, cable thimbles etc. Some of the parts are already here, and I expect the rest to arrive this week. No doubt there will be struggles to remove some of the old parts.
In a few cases, it may be best to leave things as they are, since removing them could cause further damage. Your recommendations would be welcome in such cases.
I am hoping that we could have a group of people come over next Sunday (May 6) to replace the hardware. I am avoiding Saturday due to the ARES training that day. The work would be all on the ground, no crane etc. Everyone can work on whatever aspect they wish, and all in parallel. We should just need WD-40 and hand tools.
Would you be available Sunday, and if so what times? I'll try to schedule it when most can be here, and if that overlaps noon, we will again provide free lunch. Actually, different folks could come at different times and work for as long as they wish.
Hopefully with enough hands we can finish everything, and if we decide I need to order more parts, I can do that the following Monday.
May 1, 2012
I already found some small problems. The new U bolts I bought have the right hole spacing, but the diameter of the existing holes is too small, so they will have to be drilled out to fit.
And the nuts on the new cable clamps are metric (from China) so I got a metric nut driver to fit them.
May 2, 2012
At the suggestion of Dave WB2CWJ, all the corroded parts have now been sprayed early with WD40.
Another problem. The boom turnbuckles (4 of them) need to be stabilized so they can never unscrew by themselves. The elegant way to do this is to screw nuts and lock washers onto the shafts and tighten them after adjustment is complete. One of the nuts needs be reverse threaded, since that is the way turnbuckles work. In fact reverse threaded nuts are sometimes called turnbuckle nuts. So I ordered some reverse nuts. Fortunately I decided today to assemble the turnbuckles with all parts, and discovered to my consternation that the reverse nuts do not fit! I had ordered 5/16-24 threads (the turnbuckles had not arrived yet, and the description just said 5/16), whereas the turnbuckles require 5/16-18 threads.
GACK! So now I have ordered the correct nuts and had to pay for expedited shipping to get them here in time. No Hope.
Ken previously replaced 2 of the 40M beam element trusses, as they broke earlier in the big ice storm that started all this mess. It is easy to see which ones, because they are stainless now and not corroded. He can guide the crew in updating the other 6 trusses.
May 6, 2012
Today we had a good gang of skilled hams to refurbish the 40 and 6 meter beams, in preparation for going back up on the tower. Ken W8SMK, Dave WB2CWJ, Paul N2OPW, Joe K8MP and Tim K8TBN did yeoman work as shown in the attached photographs. All old rusty hardware was replaced with new stainless, and all the Phllystran element trusses on the 40M beam were replaced. Both boom trusses were revamped with new turnbuckles. Tim drilled the new heavy duty mast sections and bolted them together.
What is left before crane time is for Tim to make the new rotator mast clamp. Gourmet cookie snacks and bottled water were served to all. THANKS EVERYONE!!!
May 7, 2012
There are arms that stuck out from the tower to support the coax cables as the tower goes up and down without tangling. I believe these arms are fastened to the tower with U-bolts. It is possible that those U-bolts are corroded and should be replaced. It is also possible that the arms themselves should be taken down and painted. This would be a good time to do that.
May 9, 2012
Today I found our biggest and most troublesome horse (Pride) eating grass in the middle of the 40M beam. He had broken thru the Caution tape, completely disregarded everything it said, knocked over one of the saw horses plunging the beam to the ground, and shoved one end of the beam thru the fence. The only damage I found was a bent phasing rod, which I straightened. I shooed him out of there, but I suspect he will be back in soon again. A problem is the beam prevents mowing the grass there, so it is taller and more delicious to the horse than the rest of the field. SWMBO says it is not her problem, and blames everything on the antenna (and us). I don't know how to keep him out of there. I hope the antenna survives the continuing equine onslaughts. No Hope.
May 11, 2012
Ken W8SMK, Paul N2OPW and Dave WB2CWJ came over today and rescued the 40M beam from the horse. Fortunately the horse had not attacked again. Perhaps my scolding discouraged him. Thanks to Ken for organizing this.
They moved the antenna to the barn roof, as shown in the attached pictures.
This took some doing, but it went fairly smoothly. They also moved the 6M beam slightly to avoid blocking a gate, as SWMBO had requested. Ken also climbed the tower and sprayed galvanizing material on the rusty hardware.
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