Remove the old antenna's from the mast on the roof
The picture below shows the roof of the building at the Technical University of Eindhoven. Not all antenna's belong to the contest station PI4TUE. There's plenty of antennas for FM repeater and packet and other digi-stuff as well.
Safety first ! Especially at a total height of more than 70mtrs above ground level (230ft). We have had to cancel several saturday options because of fierce weather (wind).
The top antenna is, sorry used to be a 5 element yagi for 50Mhz. The front boom part +director was already dissappeared; it simply must have snapped off at one point. The wind forces can be huge at this height.
The antenna below is a classic old Fritzel FB33 tribander + extra WARC dipole (12-17-30mtr).
This is Aurelio, PC5A, being happy as the weather is such nice for a change :)
Blueman +white helmet is Rens, PA3FGA.
The tribander came down easy, well too easily for one end-part of a director as it came lose and just dropped down. Nothing was hurt or damaged though. Upon close inspection several bad or loose mechanical/electrical joints were noticed. Now maybe this explaines the sometimes erratic SWR behavior we have experienced ?
See how the boom has bended over the years?
Time for a well deserved pause and some coffee.
The room is situated on the top floor and adjacent to the shack of PI4TUE. It has facilitations for making thee/coffee, has a fridge and besides the 'diner-table' lots of room to relax on one of the old couches.
From left to right: Aurelio, Claudia and Rens.
I'm pretty d*** sure the beer is a "leftover" from some other group !!
Next the Emotator rotor was removed. Its internal slip-coupling is totally worn out. A previous custom modification lasted for another year or so, and now it is in-operatable again. This one simply has served its time. Pity that the custom mounting plate for the mast was corroded and stuck. This will be a job for others now. So the new rotor will have to wait. Too bad, now the project is on halt again. Oh well, it will be quickly dark and cold soon after such a day of hard work.
This is how much space the new SteppIR will take up. The try-out of the assembly was done to prepare us for the future final installation. It is convenient working with these"pro's" who make optimal use of their time available at that day.
Why I am not in any picture?
I was doing shopping with my YL in Amsterdam.
Job well done, much appreciated guys :))
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