Oct 26, 2008

SteppIR @ PI4TUE - Part III

The final day of this project.
Me and my XYL went to her family
during the whole weekend, so again I was not able to join in. I had a great time in former Y22-country; enjoyed the superb hospitality, played with the kids of her sister etc.... Life is good, even without antennas.

Preparation for the last steps
More helpfull hands, safety tools, helmets, first-aid kit, everything to make this day a succes.
Again, you absolutely need perfect weather to work on a building roof at 220ft level. This turned out to be a beautifull day.

- Steef/PA0IB, Rens/PA3FGA, Aurelio/PC5A (wrapped in climbing gear)
- Assembling the prepared boom parts



- Tram trolley and protection against the existing guying wires by covering them with lengths of used plastic hoses.
- Steef/PA0IB assembling the control wires




- 6mtr add-on optional element
- Truss wire, not a luxury at such a height.



- 'Partly beam' just hoisted up in the air
- First-aid chick on standby
- Mind you; this is a small platform he is sitting on




- Lunchtime in the living room/kitchen/ contest sleeping room of the club station ESRAC at the 13th floor of the Technical University of Eindhoven
- L to R: Rens, Aurelio, Claudia, Steef





- adding elements
- "Look ma, no hands"




And then there's Murphy
OK, so what's different in the above second picture ?
The ground crew noticed a loose screw on the boom clamp of one of the reflector 'EHM' units. These had been loosened before to install the boom truss wire. Holy crap...!
So the whole ^%@## yagi had to be lowered again....
It is at this point that physical stress turned into overload as happened to Aurelio; suddenly his forearm muscles simply blocked and next his fingers were cramped-locked together. He got down and Rens took over.

- Switch of tower-operator
- Steef finalizing the control cable on the new Emotator FX1200 rotor





- On the left: HF-2V 40/80m vertical (not visual)
- SteppIR 3 el Yagi
- VHF antenna mast, including full size 40 and 80mtr dipoles
- Crossing the street-light; 160mtr sloper wire, barely visual



This final job lasted the whole day. Totally exhausted they left the premises at 18:00
During the week the antenna tested successfully ! This new antenna will certainly bring some new momentum in the coming contests.
In the meantime I have seen the antenna from ground level, it looks intimidating.

Again a job done very well guys !

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

And a salute to the excellent photographer(s)!