My Journal

Here you will find changes, upgrades, experiments, etc.  Basically whatever I choose to put here

9/26/08 -- Acquired KLM KT36XA and M2 KT34XA for second tower.

9/6/08 -- Tower #1 stacked to 116 feet.

8/28/08 -- Began assembly of Phillystran guy wires.  Installed ground rods at tower base, connected to tower legs via #4 solid bare copper wire.  After more HFTA modeling, made final decision as to location of antenna on Tower #1.

8/26/08 -- After 18 months of offsite storage since acquiring them from W5IZ, I finally moved the pair of Force 12 C-51XR antenna to my shop, in preparation for assembly.

8/16/08 -- Created new terrain profiles for the actual location of Tower #1.  As it turns out, the location models much better than the original coordinates.

8/9/08 -- Attended the Leesville, LA hamfest and as a charter member signed the constitution for the Louisiana Contest Club

7/14/08 -- Installed RIGrunner 8012, fed by Astron RM60.  Now have to install lots of PowerPole connectors.  

7/8/08 -- Finally strung my 160 meter dipole up in the trees on the north side of my property.  It runs east-west, and is more or less an inverted vee.  The peak is at about 60 feet, and the ends are about 15 feet up.  I know it is not the optimum setup, but it is better than none!  Also spent some time tweaking some intermittent problems with my TopTen Band Decoders, Ice 419s, and Six Pack.  Finally resolved by making a modification to the source driver boards in the the Band Decoders.  The mod is to install 1N4148 diodes to prevent the Ice from switching the Six Pack relays.

7/3/08 -- Today I got the first tower base and guyposts set in the ground and concreted in.  The project used 8 cubic yards of ready-mix. Now, I'll wait at least 3 weeks to stack the first tower, 120 feet of Rohn 55G.

6/21/08 -- Installed 4" PVC pipe through walls to route coax/control into shop and then into shack.

6/19/08 -- I added my terrain profiles to the website.  I added a few new exterior pictures.  I edited The Station page to reflect the current op position now in the new shack.

6/14/08 -- Moving day! I moved my first desk and equipment into the shack. Pictures can be found in the photo album. I must still install my grounding panel and route all coax and control cables into the shack for my existing antennas.  Once the new tower is up, there will be a major overhaul of coax and control cabling to accomodate the several changes and new antenna that will be installed.

5/22/08 -- Construction of new shack begun. It will be 18 ft by 10 ft, and have its own electrical subpanel to supply it. A full kitchen and bathroom/laundry room are attached.