KWARC Tech Report by John VE3AMZ Photos by Ben VA3BNY

From : VE3AMZ@VA3SED
Date/time : 26-Sep 12:45
Title : VE3KSR, New Antenna

On Saturday Morning, Sept. 25, the old antenna and feedline were removed from the tower at Baden for VE3KSR. A "nearly-new" Sinclair 210C-4 antenna and some "nearly-new" 7/8" Heliax was installed at the 190 foot level of the small tower.

The antenna and feedline were donated to us through the efforts of Terry Taylor, VE3NEJ one of our tech committee members. The work on the tower was performed by Jamie who works for a commercial rigger company. Jamie climbed the tower at least six times that I'm aware of and worked up there for many hours.

Two brand new 7/8" connectors were donated and installed. Others who helped were Ben VA3BNY who helped roll up the old co-ax, delivered coffee, took digital pictures, transported the reel of cable from Mannheim on his truck and did all sorts of other things on the site.

Tedd VE3TJD was there for a brief time early in the morning to help where ever needed and brought coffee etc. for the gang. Tedd had to leave to open his business for the day but later in the day, he arranged for delivery of some extra special goodies (apple strudel, cakes etc) to be delivered by Belinda his good wife.

Terry, VE3NEJ brought along his Hard-Hat and gloves and his very expensive test gear. Terry ran the winch on Jamies truck and made lifting the new feedline and antenna a lot easier. He also helped in many other ways with the installation of the new system.

VE3AMZ, (John).....my job was to help out where ever needed and to travel back to Waterloo to get new mounting clamps and stainless hardware for the antenna mounts. The original mounts on the tower were built by Terry VE3NEJ in 1984 and Jamie commented how well they were built and still looked very sturdy, but the "U" bolts has rusted and needed to be replaced.

Dave VA3MRJ our president stopped by just as we were finished to take a look at the set-up and the work we had done.

There were two unfortunate incidents during the day's work, Ben VA3BNY took a very nasty rope scrape to the face as a rope was falling from the tower and he left with a very swelled lip as well. We wish him a speedy recovery and it sure did look sore but typically Ben didn't complain much.

Then as Ben was delivering the surplus cable back to Mannheim on his truck, he was stopped in Mannheim allegedly for going somewhat over the speed limit!!

But Ben being the professional that he is was able to apologize and beg for forgiveness from the officer, and he was released into the care of President Dave and warned to slow down in the future.

The new antenna setup checked out very well on the equipment and we look forward to even better service from VE3KSR. We started at 7:00 AM and were finished by 3:00 P.M.

73 John VE3AMZ Tech. Chairman, KWARC Inc.