The ground crew were waiting for me when I arrived.
Calvin brought a short 2 bay (vertically spaced) along with a (monster) ~25ft sixteen bay UHF antenna. I was
expecting he wanted these antennas near the top of the tower on standoff brackets, but they were intended to be
mounted right at the top. 12 feet of antenna is already tricky to raise overhead for mounting, and that 25ft
was just not possible without a proper gin pole. After some discussion we decided to go with an 8 bay antenna
(half the length) instead.
He also had a new LED light to replace the old one at the top, although that light apparently has started working
again so that may be a lower priority. It's going to require disconnecting and dropping the old light, raising
the new one, and splicing in the wiring. (may need to make a pigtail for that)
This tower has a wire rope going up to a pulley at the top and back down, though it was attached to the tower to
prevent flapping, (and was untested in unknown condition) so we just used my ropes. I brought three 5mm x 300ft
plus one heavier 11mm x 300ft. That'll only make it one way, so all three 5mm were spliced together, but the
knots wouldn't make it through the #20 pulleys so it did still require my lifting for the last 20ft or so. Rope
was also snagging on bits lower on the tower (especially the meshtastic) but we were able to work around it all.
ground crew
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IMG_4406 road eagle.MOV (17 MB)
IMG_4411 checking the tower.MOV (24 MB)
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last updated 09/29/2025 at 13:16:37 by make_www_index.command version 2025.06.28.A
