My self-supporting crank-up TRI-EX W-51 tower and Telrex TB6-EM 6-element yagi antenna were installed here on Canby in August 1980 after arriving here from an assignment at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. This is an old, big and heavy system but a very reliable work horse purchased direct from Telrex Labs in Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1977 and operated at 432 Peskin Road, Farmingdale, New Jersey. This combination pretty well max-ed out what the Army would move for me. Some reviews here: EHam TB6-EM Reviews. The antenna has seen 3 rotors otherwise only the growing Eastern Ash trees have slowed it down. The reflector was hung up in the now taller broader trees. Earlier this year, several of my contest and DX-ing friends offered to do some climbing and trimming. I even thought about buying a 40-foot extension ladder at Home Depot. Well, in July 2014, Jim Stowers, K4FW, my neighbor up the road on Canby came to my rescue.
It was early around 0030 hours local on Sunday morning, July 13, 2014, when an email came in from Jim offering to bring his rental lift down and trim my trees. At the time, I was struggling with assessing damage from the crash of my big hard drive on my desktop computer; I was not having much luck and was in process in installing a new, bigger, and faster machine but what to do about a year's worth of work that wasn't backed up. More on this when stuff settles out; in the meantime, you guys can resend me your pictures on LARG FD, Hamfests, etc. since April 2013. That's a real bummer. The K4LRG.ORG website on a server in Chicago, Illinois, is there and I'm reconstituting missing files. Pete McNeil, KF4HCW was a great help on the following Tuesday.
Well, as you can imagine, I was excited to get Jim's offer; it would be a break from my nightmare and a positive event for a change. Below are a few photographs of Jim's fine work. I owe him a great grateful thank you.
|
