SJ2W Contest Station

This weekend was spent doing some various things getting ready to lift antennas up into the 60m tower. The 6el monobander for 10m was finished. The SM2WMV hairpin design is now even closer to perfection, as its mounted on yet another beam. I used the 3/8″ superflex coax I got from SG3P. Unfortunately I didn’t have any 7/16″ connector that did fit this coaxial cable, so I used a PL259 which fits perfectly and soldered that instead. So I will need to get an UHF->N->7/16″ adapter mounted. Not the perfect solution but I will seal it well so we don’t get any problems in the future with it. SM2XJP helped me a bit to finish it up and we flipped it around and attached the boom strut to it. Hopefully we will get it up this weekend and the goal is to also get the 3el for 40m up, but I am happy if we get far enough so its tuned and ready for lift off.

I climbed the tower on Saturday with a rope and block. After getting up to 52m I attached the block and with help of SM2XJP we hoisted the tram wire and the block up to the upper guy wire point. The block got mounted and it was a tough job lifting 52m+ of 8mm wire by hand, but as further down one came with the wire the easier it got, since the weight of the wire itself goes towards equilibrium when it reaches the ground. It was funny because when lifting the wire up to the block with the winch, the block I was using for the lifting rope made terrible noises. But after spitting on it a few times it did quiet down, innovation is the key to building a big contest station 😉

So now the tram wire is in place, the 10m yagi is ready to be tuned. So I am hoping to get to SJ2W on Thursday evening and if weather allows, we will lift the 10m Yagi on Friday. Then the next task is to hoist the 1/2″ coax if I have enough energy left. But if not we will continue work on the ground and hopefully getting the 40m Yagi tuned and ready to be lifted.

Also, big thanks to SM2RIX for giving us a bunch of 1/2″ superflex jumper cables with 7/16″ connectors! Thank you very much Rickard!

Here are some pictures from the weekend and also from SAC CW,