I have gotten great help from SM2UVU the last two weekends and we’ve gotten quite a lot done even though weather was pretty poor last weekend on Saturday. He also had his girlfriend with him which was nice since she and Anna spent time with each other and seemed to have fun.
Me and SM2UVU almost completed the OB16-3 copy. Just some minor stuff left to do such as attaching the boom guys to the center strut and also adding the balun. After that it should be ready to be hoisted, which will hopefully happen quite soon. I also finished the RF choke for the 40m Yagi so that one just needs the hairpin built and it is ready to go up as well. I have some plans to take a week off work soon and hopefully then we can get them mounted on the tower if weather and ground crew allows.
My neighbor called and asked if I needed any construction wood. I said not right now so he said he’d put it away then. When SM2XJP came by and I told him he said “Did you ask if he wasn’t just going to give it to you?”. So I went there and asked the price for it, since I will need it sooner or later. So he told me it was free if I just took it from there which SM2XJP did with the help of the neighbors tractor. It’s great to have such neighbors 🙂 It is quite a lot and the planned rack for aluminium and steel materials seem to be happening this summer 🙂
I got an inverter that I ordered from China to be used on the winch. I tried it and it works great so me and SM2UVU got the 200m of wire onto the drum of the winch. However I took 20m off it later to have a bit more space, since I will never more than 180m. I will also add some plates to make the drum sides a bit higher to minimize the risk of the wire climbing over. But it seems as if we keep the winch aligned properly to the tower that the wire lays out on the drum nicely by itself. Now left to do on it is welding those side plates on plus making the controls for it. Plan is to have one control on the winch itself but also a remote, at first by cable but I have some plans to make a wireless remote as well.
I have also ordered an inverter based gasoline generator which will be super great when working at the inband tower. And with the new inverter for the winch (1-phase to 3-phase) it is possible to run the winch of it.
