• Making Progress

    I was finally able to get a tower, rotator and antenna setup at home, while these are not new they are well appreciated.

    • Tower: 40′ Delhi Tower (4 feet into ground)
    • Rotator: CDE Ham II Rotor System
    • Antenna: hy-gain TH-3JRS

    How it all went together….

    • Dug a hole 4 feet deep (I really hate digging).
    • Test and wire rotator.
    • Installed 1st 10 foot section into hole.
    • Installed 2nd 10 foot section and bolted together (used an A frame ladder as it was just 6 feet above the ground).
    • Installed roof bracket and braces.
    • Verify that tower was plum using a level on all sides.
    • Fill hole with dirt.
    • Re-verify plum.
    • Install 3rd 10 foot section from the roof and bolted.
    • Attempt to install final 10 foot section and FAILED.
    • Rented boom lift
    • Installed final 10 foot section and bolted. (so easy with the boom lift)
    • Install rotator onto bottom rung of last tower section.
    • Installed shaft.
    • Assembled the TH-3JRS on the roof and installed using boom lift.
    • Installed and routed coax and control cables.

    And not to mention the 5+ so trips to hardware store to get bolts, brackets, etc…

    Final Verdict: IT WORKS!!! YAY

    73- VE9TRJ

  • First Contact

    I would like to send a big THANK YOU to the following for helping me get my amateur radio license and getting my first contact on HF.

    First off I want to start off by saying to my biggest supporter my wife, I LOVE YOU, without your support I would not have been able to achieve any of this. You helped me study and where by my side the whole way. I finally got to the point of being able to write my exam. Paul was extremely accommodating and promptly scheduled me in. As a new qualified ham with no equipment other than a UV-K6 handheld radio it would have been extremely hard to accomplish what I was to do. Dennis loaned me 2 radios (Yaesu FT-450, Yaesu FT-900 ), a dipole antenna and other odds and ends. On top of that he gave me a totally awesome piece of radio history for passing my exam… a beautiful Heathkit SB-101 that I plan on eventually restoring. As I am still learning I stumbled upon Ham Radio Crash Course on YouTube and watched many of his videos, I eventually joined their discord channel and the support I received was immense. Robin was awesome and volunteered to help me make my first contact on HF. He first used his radio in Madison County, TN, USA and we made contact on 14.156MHz. Afterwards he jumped to a remote radio based in Croatia and we were also able to make contact again on the same frequency. So again thank you to all those listed above and to all those who also helped me along the way that may have not been mentioned above.

    73- VE9TRJ