1/7 First trip up the 180' tower today to fix a sticking indicator on the K0XG ring rotor. The shaft was binding in the bushing coming out the bottom of the pot housing so I wicked some 3-in-1 oil up the shaft and worked it around until it was moving freely again.
1/8 Top 20m rotor still freezes up... could it be that this one has water in it also? I tried freezing it before it went up, but maybe in a position that would not have affected the low torque gear?
1/22 Nice January day, 15f and a couple inches of new snow on top of the ice. I took Pablo for his first cross country ski trip around the Beverages. He did pretty good, he quickly learned not to chase the tips, and only tried walking on the tails for a short distance. He did end up taking a chunk out of one pad on something, but it didn't slow him down. There were some more small branches down on the 80m 4-square radials and on the Beverages and trails, but nothing too big and no other damage.
1/27 A bit icy this morning:
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Fortunately about 3pm the temperature shot up to 36f and it rained so most of the ice came off the top antennas just before the wind started.
1/28 Winds over night gusted around 45-50mph probably, the anemometer was frozen so there is no record. Some of the 160m Inverted-L radials are down. One tree came down on one of them, others just broke from the weight and/or falling ice. Ice was a good 1/2" thick on the top antennas. There is still some ice left on the lower antennas and Beverages.
Put back up a couple radials on each of the 160m Inverted-L radials and reconnected the North one. Guess it really is time to replace them with new wire.
1/29 Tested 3 more of the same vintage ring rotor motors as the one on the top 20m ring in the freezer. One of the 3 froze up, the other 2 seem ok.
2/4 Walked the Beverages. Only some small branches down on them this time, even after all the ice and wind last week.
2/11 Pulled a couple broken little trees off the 40m 4-Square radials.
2/24 Another ice storm followed by high winds. Only about 1/4" of ice on stuff so there don't seem to be any problems.
3/3 Typical of this winter.. more ice.
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3/17 Finally got up to replace the top 20m rotor motor. Also had to realign the bottom 20m ring as it was about 30 degrees off. The top 40m ring was about 30 degrees off also, that was realigned using the Green Heron controller calibration procedure.
4/12 Been an exciting couple of cold and breezy weeks. Doing the spring rock harvest, digging out the new growth left over from the roots of the stone wall removed last year. I finally bought some better PTT switches, the Heil HS-2 trigger grip style. They sure feel nicer than the little pushbuttons that were starting to get flaky.
4/14 This is one of the fun things that goes on when no one is here playing contest. I have been carefully tending this rock for years until it finally ripened... now it is my trophy rock from the spring harvest.
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Pick the best caption:
- I know I buried that bone around here somewhere!
- You didn't like it when I dug holes in the yard!
- If this is what passes for fun in Peru, I want to go back to the city!
- When do I get to dig?
- I hope you don't expect me to fill this hole in now.
- That steroid shot for my skin problem must have had a few side effects.
- Boy am I going to be in trouble when Dave sees this mess!
More pics if you are curious:
1 2 3 4 5 64/22 Removed winter ground screens and the plywood that was around the bases of the towers from the 80m 4-square area.
5/7 K0XG ring indicator is stuck again. He is sending me a new one to replace it.
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