Fernebo Bloggen

… the Core Team at SK3W were making the last heavy lift for the antenna season.

The rotor parts and 40m Yagi was lifted to top of the tower this weekend. Antennas was dissembled at the 34 meter level of the tower and then lifted piece by piece to the top. Then re-assembled and tilted to its final position on the mast. Three different ways on how to get the antenna to the top of the tower was considered.

• Use a tram-wire: No good wire available.
• Loosen the guy wires and use temporary guys: Never tested, risky?
• Lift the antenna in parts: Slow work, but MUCH faster if we have can have persons in the tower.

This was the third time I lifted a 40m Yagi in this way, and it was much easier with the help from Jonas SM5PHU. We had some wind in the end, but the antenna is very well balanced and went in position without arguing.

The ground crew was excellent this weekend, staffed by SM0MXO Hasse, SM0GNS Peder, SM5AJV Ingo, SM5EPO Peo and SM3XIK Anders. Special thanks to Jonas SM5PHU who for the first time could look down on the old the 60 m Jaaaaska tower.

Please see the photo gallery for more photos.

Today SM0MXO Hans, SA3BGM Tony, SM5EPO Peo and SM3XIK Anders lifted up another section of the Ericsson Tower. Tomorrow some guy wires…

Yesterday we lifted four more tower sections. Weather was perfect, and ground crew well up to speed.

We stopped at the 62 meter level, and next is to put up another guy wire level, and the the top part. As always Anders and Peo was managing the winch and wires. The SK3W Prospects SA5BDS Patrik and SA5BJM Johan was on site and showed their different skills. I am sure they are close to “Full-Patch” soon.

Since last post the new guy wire level is in place at 48 meters, and also some more sections.

Work has been slow, mainly because of missing ground crew, but also due to limitations in the winch and wire. On Saturday we will try to continue work, if we find more ground crew. There are a few section left until next guy level, and the top sections with antennas can be mounted later in September.

On Saturday the middle 5 element yagi in the 60m tower was repaired. Parts of the driven element had fallen down during a storm some weeks ago.
Ground crew this weekend was Christer H, COP, XIK and HBV.

The same antennas was repaired last year, at that time a loose director. Some video and photos from that session is found here on this blog.

The wire 4 square for 160 meters has been repaired. Maintenance crew were SG3P, SM3XIK and SM5IMO.

Today finally I got some help to start with antenna work. SM3XLY Erik came to the station and helped me with the middle 20m yagi in the 60m tower.

The front director of the antenna was loose, and a guy wire for the boom was broken. The winch was mounted on the tower and the antennas was hanging in the wire while it was tilted verically to be able to reach the director, and the loose guy wire.  Active tower time was about 3-4 hours but some extra hour to prepare the winch as well.

In the morning Jan and Wolfie helped to clean up the old antenna storage that had broken during winter.

Total man power at the station today, three. (XIK also visited but he arrived to late for the antenna party…) Dog count was two.

Good progress through out the weekend. The 4 el yagi for 20m was lifted up to the 34 meter level in the tower, and a new feeder was connected. The resonance of the antenna changed when it reached its final position, and is now on the lower edge of the band. I might try to retune the antenna in the tower later, but it is time consuming and difficult. The 5el Hygain yagi for 15m was also repaired. A broken reflector was fixed and the antennas was re-tuned. Also some clamps were changed.

Ground crew this weekend was two “non-hams”, that not only helped with antennas but also installed some electrical cables, lamp and switch for ligth in the bathroom. Thanks Andreas and Birger!

Well, nothing new, yet. And some stuff is actually down.

Last weekend SE5E Ingemar and SG3P took down the 4 el yagi from the Ericsson Tower. While AJV changed all tips on the yagi, SGP put up three new feedlines for the 20m stack in the 60m tower. Each antenna in the stack got a new cable all the way down to the ground. The idea is to make a new stackmatch, witch should include the possibility to switch one of the antennas out-of-phase.

In the Ericsson tower a new stack will be mounted. The single yagi is re-designed, and a new 4el will be mounted in a “high angle” stack fixed to USA. The new stack will fill up a huge gap in in high angle signals, that was completely lost on the big stack. Nevertheless, the fixed stack will be competetive towards the USA and the 20/40m tower can stay in the east direction longer when we run the M/M.

Today the 4 el yagi was tuned. Tuning was easy, and a hairpin match was used to get the 22 ohm up to 50 ohm. Hopefully the antenna can be lifted tomorrow, and the new antenna mounted on ground.