Here we are supposedly in the middle of one of the major contests and now we have to prepare for another challenge, heavy winds, rain and likely at least a week of power outage. Yesterday Nancy and I spent a good part of the day emptying the front and back porches, securing the trash cans, loose items in the yard and shopping for supplies, and gas for the generator that may need to last a week. I still need to go out and do some more shopping, head up to the repeater site and secure things up there. This morning I climbed the tower with the newly stacked monobanders and bungied the side mounted boom of the lower beam to a tower leg, thinkiing I would a protect the rotator and stop two free spinning antennas doing damage. On the way down I taped and bungied the freely suspending cables and lines that were not secured to the tower. I think the towers on their own should survive OK, but if a falling tree hits the guys that will be disastrous. With 90+ MPH gusts from the east, trees coming down are a given. I just hope the two large trees just to the east of my tower guys hold up.
I cranked down the KT36XA to 25 feet and was wondering since the winds will be coming from the east, should the antenna be aimed toward the wind or 90 degrees to it? I think into or away from the wind is the best choice since that would put less of a buffeting load on the rotator.
How is your prepartaion going? It looks like I will be spending little time on the air this weekend. However initial tests on the stacked 15M beams show positive results with nice unsolicited comments of “Big Signal” several times.
John W1AN
I believe the safe way to stow your beam is so that you have the least cross-sectional area taking the brunt of the wind. Another way to say it is the minimum radar cross-section. In most cases, I would say that would be with the boom perpendicular to the wind, elements parallel to the wind.
That’s about as technical as I can get today. 73, Mike, K1DM
Good luck to everyone with the storm, hope damage is minimal and first and foremost that everyone stays safe.
Once the storm passes, get them rigs turned on and listen for SV9/KI1G starting next weekend.
73,
Rick KI1G
GM Rick, running now on the portable generator. The power went out here a few hours ago. Looks like you have some fun planned for next week. Hope work doesn’t get in the way. The winds here are not real bad yet. Gusts are coming from all directions. There is very little rain so far. Hope everone remains safe.
73,
John W1AN
G’morning, all:
It’s Tuesday morning and it looks like the worst is over at my QTH. Fortunately had only a couple of very brief power interruptions yesterday afternoon, and by 9:00 PM when I let the dog out before bedtime, the winds had abated and the moon was shining brightly. This morning all is quiet and a gentle rain is falling.
Hope everyone made it through without any serious damage…
73,
Ken K3IU
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Glad you weathered the storm Ken, I took some cool video of the MOXON in the peak wind of the storm. Pretty scary stuff, one of the element trusses for the MOXON somehow got wrapped around the reflector of the 20 meter beam 7 ft above it but nothing broke. It is amazing how well aluminum bounces back.
Hope everyone else is faring well.
73
Rick
Good evening,
It’s Tuesday evening and my generator is still doing a fine job. It’s been called on for over 25 years, first running during Hurricane Gloria in 1985.
The town of Ledyard still has 85% of its residents without electric service. In the SE quarter of the state that’s about the average. Statewide average is about 35%. The lines up the road from me were taken down by trees. A pole is leaning at a 35 degree angle and wires are down on parallel roads. The good thing is at least one power crew is actually working on the repairs.
At home I managed to get through the winds without major damage. I did lose a piece of siding off the house and some roofing off the barn in front. No trees came down that affected the towers. It was an incredible experience watching what the winds could do. At ground level, when there was little rain I could actually walk around outside with the 70MPH winds roaring through. The trees in my yard amazingly escaped with little damage other than loss of leaves. The antennas did get a scary work out rocking and rolling with each gust of wind. The 40M yagi started free wheeling on its mast. Apparently the DX Engineering clamp lost its bite allowing the beam to work its way down. I guess I will be doing some climbing the next week or so. I still need to assess the damage to the barn roof. I was hoping to get it through another winter.