December 9

December 9.  Two notable radio-related things happened to me on this day, 40 years apart.  Of little interest to anyone other than me, but this is a blog and that's what blogs are for.

1976

On this day in 1976, I bought one of these:

Well, almost like this.  Mine was branded Lloyd's CB-2123 and not Spark-O-Matic.  Otherwise, it was identical.  I didn't realize it at the time but the reason this was being offered for the unheard-of price of $79.99 (about half of what the cheapest radios had cost all that summer) was that they were being dumped on the Canadian market.

On January 1st of 1977 -- mere weeks after I bought the radio in question -- the FCC was to increase the number of Class D CB channels from 23 to 40.  While this was great for the CBers who would nearly double the number of available channels, it was a big problem for manufacturers.

Once the news of the FCC's new rules (surely a Report and Order after a Notice of Proposed Rule-making) got out, the bottom dropped out of the CB market as consumers didn't want to be stuck with "obsolete" 23-channel radios.

Some manufacturers reacted by including a coupon that would allow for a free "remanufacturing" of the 23-channel radio into a 40-channel unit after the first of the year.  I have no idea how that worked given that most 23-channel rigs used a crystal matrix to synthesize the 23 (or, more often, 24!) channels; only the most expensive units had phase-locked loop digital synthesis.

The Canadian market offered a way out for some.  The Canadian Department of Communications didn't plan their CB expansion -- legally the General Radio Service, or GRS, a name no one used -- until April 1st of 1977.  So US-based manufacturers started dumping them north of the border.  In this case, Spark-O-Matic evidently worked with or otherwise struck a deal with Lloyd's, a Canadian company that sold consumer electronics gear, to sell these radios in Canada.

Worked for me:  I was finally able to afford a CB radio!  Something I had coveted all through the summer of 1976.  Many hams look down on CB for some reason and while in my area there were certainly a number of jerks on the air, most people were quite pleasant.  We even had directed nets on busy nights and had RDF contests.  We had fun.

2016

So today, 40 years later to the day, I'm in the car on the way to work.  The radio stops scanning on AO-85's VHF downlink frequency and I hear the recorded voice of the little girl who IDs the satellite when the voice transponder is activated.

One of the regulars is on but there is not the usual cacaphony of stations trying to make contacts.  There is a lull and I kerchunk (my radio is programmed with the UHF uplink and VHF downlink in the same memory slot).  I hear a gap in the audible hash that is caused by AO-85's Data Under Voice telemetry (at least, I think that's the noise) and that gap is about the right delay given the distance to the satellite (over the Great Lakes at that point).  So I decide to give out my callsign and grid locator. AND I GOT A REPLY!

I had no idea that you could work satellites (of the low-earth-orbit variety in this case) on a regular FM dual-band mobile radio and basically a unity-gain antenna (Comet SBB-1NMO).  Ironically, I had had no luck at all over the summer and fall with AO-85 using my HT and an Arrow-II satellite antenna, a setup I've used quite a bit with SO-50.

Interestingly, the FT-90 installation in the car is sort of half-assed, with power being drawn from the cigarette lighter.  On most of the regular repeater channels, I have the power set down at the 5- or 10-W level so I don't blow the fuse (it's hardly needed for the local repeaters).  When I checked the memory settings after I made my QSO this morning, I found that it was set to high for AO-85!  I have no idea why the fuse didn't blow.

New Stuff

Clearly have not posted more often even though I do, in fact, have a master's degree (in nothing RF- or computing-related!).  I did, however, attend the Dayton Hamvention for the first time.  I made a point of attending the AMSAT forum (even ducking out early from the HamNation forum to attend) and ended up being jazzed (again) about satellite operation.  In college, I contacted both the Space Shuttle and MIR as well as making contacts via AO-13 and, I think, its predecessor AO-10.  Not sure we ever operated any LEO sats, though at the time, most were packet and, for whatever reason, we weren't QRV on orbital packet (we certainly had all the pieces at the school's station).  I do remember listening to DO-17 trying to make its voice synth work.  Some stuff was hard 25 years ago.  Anyway, other than occasionally copying the Shuttle or ISS mostly by accident, I'd done nothing spacey.

I became an AMSAT member at Dayton and when I got back, I ordered an Arrow hand-held satellite antenna (with the diplexer and a mounting clamp).  They aren't expensive and they work really well.  Longer story short, I made a half-dozen satellite QSOs standing out in the yard back in June ... and then it got really hot, which took all the fun out of standing out in the yard.  It's cooler now, so I need to get back at it.  I've only been able to successfully work via SO-50, a Mode V/u FM satellite.  I've not yet been successful with AO-85, Mode U/v FM.  I need to figure out how to set up for AX.25  packet, too, since there are a couple satellites that will digipeat.

For several years, I've wanted an IC-910H multimode rig.  After considering an IC-9100, Icom's replacement for the venerable 910, I decided that the extra kilobucks needed to get that radio weren't worth the money, since I already have the IC-746Pro for HF/6/2 and had no plans to get rid of it.

Looked and looked and found an IC-910H that had the UX-910 L-Band module and a single UT-106 DSP module.  And I got it for a great price.  Before I found the 910, I bought a used CD-II-type rotator, an MFJ 6-m Yagi and a Diamond 70-cm Yagi.  I don't have the support to get all that in the air quite yet, but will soon get that 70-cm beam up in the air.  Don't have anything for 1.2 GHz, either.  If that wasn't enough, I also got an excellent deal on an Elecraft XV-222 1.25-m transverter.

So I've gone from having "weak signal" ability only on 6 and 2 but also 1.25 m,  70 cm,  and 23 cm.  This setup (once it's all set up!) will also allow me to work some of the linear transponder satellites, albeit only on near-horizon passes.

OK, off to do some repeater work.

Not selling the Isopoles after all

Spouse finally got me to climb the ladder to do something about the Isopoles on the end of the house. I've got both the 2-m and 70-cm versions with a diplexer (band-pass filter) feeding them into the radio room.  Since they've been up, I've never really been happy with their performance.  I eventually stuck an Arrow Antennas GP146/440 up to replace them and just used the Isopoles for the scanners.

So when I got up the ladder and got all the dead vines away, I opened up the plastic box that holds the diplexer to start disconnecting things.  First thing I noticed was that one of the PL-259s, the one on the VHF port, was loose.  No big deal. Hmm, which antenna does this feed again? Maybe that's the problem.  Hey, look!  It's connected to the UHF Isopole.  And naturally, the UHF port was connected to the VHF antenna. 

Gee, do you think connecting it backwards is a problem?

Yeah.

I need to keep up - Dipole back in air

Seriously ... over 2 years?  I do need to move this over to WordPress but even so .. two?  Maybe it will be better after graduation. 

Anyway, a year ago, the local utility was replacing poles on the property and inadvertently snagged the Spi-Ro D-52 40-80 trap dipole. So for the last year, I've been relegated to 10/12/17/30 m.  With the help of spouse, I've fixed the two breaks and hauled it back into the air.  Just in time for the ARRL November Sweepstakes.  And, I've even made a few QSOs.  Dips in the SWR are not as they were before (I need to find the old ones), but looks to be usable at the low end on 40 and 20 at least.

I see that my country totals are way off, too.  191/177?  More like 201/187.  Guess I should be sending out some cards, too, to get that 200 sticker.

Staycation, Part II

Back to the 9913. Once it was down, I put the multimeter to it and found that it was shorted. That's a problem obviously. I put I cut off the connector in preparation for putting on a new one, thinking that was the issue. I used my DXEngineering prep tool and discovered that the center conductor was an odd shade of black. OK, so this *is* a water incursion problem. I wonder? I cut off 6" and blew into the end. Lo and behold, a drop of water.

That makes this section of feedline toast, but what about the section connected to the D-56?

I put the multimeter and analyzer on that section - no short, but some resistance and SWR to dummy load was 3:1 instead of 1:1. Looks like I need *two* new sections of coax.

Fortunately for me, I had acquired a spool of LMR400 from a previous employer (yes, I did get permission!) so I cut new lengths for both antennas. While I was at it, I cut a slightly longer piece for the 10-m dipole.

Once up on the roof, I found out that the piece attached to the D-56 had good reason to have high SWR - in several places, the cable was chafed down into the dielectric! The way the cable runs, it comes down straight to the roof ... where the asphalt shingles abrade it as it moves with the wind. I have yet to solve this issue. The 40/80 could also potentially suffer from the same issue, but we solved it by moving the antenna closer to the NE end which allowed the cable to hang away from the roof.

With new cable in place on both antennas, SWR was now where it was supposed to be!

Wires were now down so it was on to the mast. The new anchors had set so it was time to prep the antennas. Got the cables secured and made sure that the wouldn't bind when rotated 360 degrees. Pushed the first section up and attached the 6-m loop. Got the whole thing up in the
air and attached the new guys.

Sounds simple, but took place over a couple of days. Temps were in the 90s and being on the asphalt roof did not help!

Even got the 6-m loop connected to the switch so that all four ports are now in use. This came in handy the following week during a 6 meter opening where I was able to switch between the loop and the 40-80 dipole, which is, oddly, resonant on 6 as well.

Staycation, Part I

I took a week-and-a-bit off from work and traveled to ... home. Loved the accommodations and the meal package! I also made a pretty big dent in the to-do list, mostly on the antenna section.

The antenna to-do list was a little longer than before due to the recent "wind storm". In addition to a number trees (most already dead), the wobble-stack took a bit of a hit. This was due, undoubtedly, to the crappy guying job that was in place prior to May 10. In addition to resurrecting the VHF antennas and making the wobble-stack decidedly less wobbly, the wire antennas were worked on as well.





In the case of the wire antennas, one of the dead trees that came down ended up leaning against a live tree that supported the Spi-Ro D-52 40-80 dipole, so we started there. The tree that fell, or tried to fall, was where the support rope for the dipole terminated. The tree it fell into is the one whose crown supports the rope that supports both the 40-80 and WARC-band dipoles.

We thought it best to lower the antenna (from the other end) lest too much tension snap something especially during the tree removal process. Since the 40-80 crosses the 80-10, we lowered that, too. The 10-m dipole has been supported at one end by the wobble-stack, so that was already down. At this point, the WARC-band dipole was still up.

We borrowed the neighbor's tractor (and the neighbor) and got the dead tree moved to a safer horizontal axis. That done, we got the 40-80 and the 80-10 back in the air. I still saw SWR issues on the 40-80, though, which I thought I'd blogged about but haven't. So a little diversion.

I started having trouble with the Spi-Ro D-56 (5-band trap dipole) back in 2008. See here and here. Basically, one of the traps that makes it resonant on the 10-meter band is dead so I needed a new antenna. Having had good service from it and the Spi-Ro D-314 WARC dipole, I thought I'd get another Spi-Ro. Unfortunately, they neither answered the phone nor email. They did have an eBay site (through a third party, as far as I can tell) so it appeared that they still sold antennas. Looking at their site, they had a D-52 trap dipole that promised coverage from 80 through 10 with only two traps and 20 or so more feet of copper. So I ordered one.

Well, it seems they were WAY optimistic on covering 20-15-10 meters. I eventually put up a home-brew dipole for 10 and continued to use the D-56 for 15 and 20.

With that many antennas, switching bands was becoming a hassle, so I acquired an Ameritron RCS4 switch. Within a few months, I had trouble, namely weird SWR issues that I initially blamed on the switch. It wasn't the switch.

Anyway, back to the story. SWR was wonky on the 40/80. Worse, it was really bad on the 80-10. OK, but I had other things to do.

With the 40-80 and 80-10 back up, I got the 10-m dipole off the ground (it had been supported at one end by the aforementioned wobble-stack) and supported by the Davis weather station's tripod on the roof. This meant that 1) the antenna was now higher leading to better signal reports on the weekly 10-m net and 2) it needed more that the 25' of feedline that it had so that it wasn't pulled horizontally. I left the latter for another day.

While we were tying the ribbons on having the 3 wires back in the air ... the WARC-band dipole fell down! Upon inspection of the support rope, we found fraying. This was undoubtedly due to the movement of the Sycamore tree used as one of the supports. Look back and you'll see that this was not totally unanticipated. Something else to leave to another day.

In thinking about the SWR issue on the 40-80 antenna, it occurred to me (finally!) that maybe it wasn't the switch and that maybe it was the coax. Since this was partially-air-dielectric Belden 9913, that was a distinct possibility. It's well known in the amateur radio community that 9913 has to be really well sealed at the connector ends lest water accumulate in that dielectric space. Even if you're careful, you may still get condensation.

To test, I substituted 68' of LMR-400 for the 40 or so feet of 9913. Initial tests were good so I left it for a few days.

On a subsequent day, though not sure which, I mounted the 2-m loop, the 2-m beam, and the rotator on the top of the mast. I had already prepared a new set of guys, ones that I hope will prevent a repeat of the wind-driven collapse of the VHF mast. Not only are the guys themselves better, but so are the anchors.


We also got the WARC-band dipole out of the tree. We debated whether or not to move the anchor from the Sycamore, but decided to leave that until another time. There are other candidate trees near the Sycamore that don't sway as much.

Next, the saga of 9913 and the VHF stuff ...

Ameritron RCS4 review

This review was posted to eHam.net back in February. I recently discovered that the problem was with the coax, so I posted an updated review. When eHam published the new one, the killed the old one. So here it is:

Bought the unit from HRO in November of 2009 and got it on the mast in time for SS. Initial configuration was Spi-Ro D-52 80/40 trap dipole on Port 4 (default port), Spi-Ro D-314 WARC trap dipole on Port 3, homebrew 10-m dipole on Port 2 and a cap (an actual Amphenol cap with a rubber seal and everything!) on Port 1.

Installed per directions and initial results were wonderful! Sometime in January, the antennas on Ports 2 and 4 went deaf and became non-resonant. I borrowed an MFJ analyzer and connected directly to the antennas in question, bypassing the switch. NTF. OK, so a switch issue? Swapped the two antennas and got the same results. Damn.

Called Ameritron, explained the situation, and they said to send it in.

A few weeks later it comes back. I grab the invoice out of the waybill pack and lo, and behold, tech says "NTF".

Nice.

Not.

Put it back up and get EXACTLY THE SAME RESULTS AS BEFORE. OK, so this time, I mix the antennas differently. And guess what? If I put the 40/80 on Port 3 and the WARC on Port 4 **it all works**.

I find that quite odd.

But it works.

Just watch out. :-)

If winter ever ends, I plan to try to use the remaining port for my KB6KQ 6-m loop. Hard to tell if the RCS-4 will work at 50 MHz, but plan to try. (RCS-4L docs include 6m, RCS-4 docs do not)

Wires

More about the antenna situation. A few weeks back, prior to the CW weekend of the ARRL November Sweepstakes, spouse and I installed the Spi-Ro D-52 trap dipole. That's the one that's advertised as covering all 5 bands, 80-10 (it doesn't: it covers 80 and 40). But I must say, it does a pretty good job on the bands it does cover.

  MHz       SWR
  3.500     11:1
  3.860    1.1:1
  4.000    4.6:1

  7.000    5.9:1
  7.210    1.7:1
  7.300    2.2:1

 50.22     2.2:1
145.95     2.0:1

OK, so it covers 6 and 2 with a tuner? Weird. The readings on 20, 10, and, strangely, 15 aren't worth mentioning ... sort of like 3.500. That 11:1 reading could be a problem with the upcoming RTTY Roundup since the digital sub-band is now squished down below 3.600 MHz.

I didn't spend much time on 80 during the Phone weekend of SS and it showed in the results - about 100 QSOs fewer than last year. Worked a bunch on 40, though, and during the CW weekend, I made all 50 or so QSOs on 40. RFI doesn't seem too bad either.

Oh, and I added an Ameritron RCS-4 to the mix. I have three of its ports active so far, with the 80-40 dipole as the default, the WARC-band dipole on another port, and the home-brew 10-m dipole on the third port.

The 4th port will have the 6-m loop eventually, but I just didn't feel like lowering the wobblestack to re-arrange the feedlines.

I was able to remove a 68-ft chunk of LMR-400 from service, though, which is cool. I'll be able to remove another chunk of RG-8 when I straighten out the 6-m stuff.

So far, the switch works great. I have the D-56 on port 1 of the 746 and the switch on port 2. I have 15 and 20 set (in the radio) for port 1 and everything else on 2. When I'm on the WARC bands, 10, 40, or 80, I just need to turn the knob on the controller and everything is groovy.

I worked a ZS on 80 phone the other day, so it must all be working.

45G

Sometimes, you just have to be in the right place at the right time. At the last club meeting, the president announced that the EM had rescued some surplus Rohn tower sections from, literally, the scrap heap. Would any of us be interested in them?

Would any of us be interested in them?

Um, yeah.

Took spouse's truck to the appointed location and came home with 3 10-foot sections, a 7' top section, a "safety ring", a work platform, and three guy brackets.

Thirty-seven feet is not the world's tallest tower and I will probably try to locate two additional 10' sections, but man, I'm a lot closer to a tower than I was a week ago!

Thanks to the folks that made this possible!!!

6'n'2

Finally, finally got the Cushcraft A148-10S up in the air. Bought the antenna (and rotator and IsoPoles for 2 m and 70 cm ... and some speakers) from the widow of N5HZX 2.5 years ago. Hemmed and hawed (and then thought about it some more) and finally put a plan together a few weeks ago.

Originally, the top of the mast -- that's a ChannelMaster or Radio Shack 30' push-up pole -- had the old RS discone with the KB6KQ loops below. Well, I had those two loops way too close together and had poor SWR on both of them. Hasn't stopped me from working both coasts, XE, CO, and HI on 6 m (tuner!) and a 455-km contact on 2 m (with 3:1 SWR!), but still ...

So, the rotator is now at the top, with a 1-m mast above that holding the 2-m loop. I also dropped the 6-m loop to about the 20' level.

Ha - pretty close to flat SWR on both antennas! With spouse's help, I also got the SWR down to 1.4:1 on the beam. Interestingly, after I got off the roof entirely, the SWR is much closer to flat. I thought 15-20' away was enough for a good reading, but I guess not.

Now, I just need to work someone on the new beam. Made some 6-m contacts with the loop in the new configuration and heard a station near Dallas on the beam, but couldn't work him.

Oh, one other thing. The guying is crap. :-) I need to work on that, clearly.

Current balun

For the time-being, I've decided to leave the D-56 in the air. It still works FB on the other bands, and, judging from the 60 QSOs I made in the 10-m contest, the 10-m dipole works FB as well.

I did, however, order a current balun kit from Palomar Engineers. Recall that I have RFI issues on the low bands. I worked around it by ignoring the rig interface connection during Sweepstakes, but I'd really rather not do that for the upcoming RTTY Roundup since, you know, the computer is a key part of modern RTTY.

Anyway, that should be here in time for me to build it and get it installed. If it cures the RFI issues, I'll be ahead of the game even if that trap is broken.

Antenna saga, part 42

Got an offer of a B&W broad-banded, folded dipole. Took the offer but changed my mind and re-installed the D-56 with the broken trap.

I emailed the vendor and have heard exactly nothing from him or the manufacturer.

Not sure where I'm going from here. The D-52 works great on 40 and 80, but I need 15 and 20, as well, and I'm running out of convenient trees. :-)

No one else seems to make a straight, 80-10, trap dipole.

Alpha Delta Communications has a 80-40 model with parallel wires for 10 and 20 (15 is a harmonic of 40 even if it's not on the D-52) but I'm not sure I want to experiment - that D-56 just worked on 5 bands (before the trap went).

No happy

Got the Spi-Ro D-52 the other day. It got to 60 F here today, so I left work early and put it up, as always with a ton of help from Spouse.

The D-56 cover 5 bands with 6 traps and is 82' long. The D-52 is said to cover 5 bands with 2 traps and is 105' long.

The D-56 was easy enough to explain - inner traps made it look like a 10-m dipole, next set like a 20-m dipole, third set like a 15/40-m dipole and on 80 m, no traps were visible.

But how would that work with only 2 traps?

So far, not so good. Dips are as follows:

MHz     SWR

3.84    1.2:1
7.24    1.6:1
15.00   3.8:1
22.7    2.3:1
32.65   2.7:1

Kindly note that only two of those are within the amateur bands. :-(

There are tuning instructions which, interestingly, only mention 40 and 80 for the D-52.

I'll see if I can do anything by adjusting element length but the ol' D-56 might end up back in the air ... or I'll buy/make something for 15/20.

More on 10 m

I was NCS for the local 10-m net tonight. By all accounts, the new 10-m slopey dipole works into town a lot better than the D-56 did.

Given that we're only about 8 radio miles east of the center of town you wouldn't think that there'd be much difference between a (roughly) NW-SE dipole and an N-S dipole ... but there clearly is.

Since the D-56 is still up, I could do A/B comparisons. Only two stations were better on the old antenna, one of which is only about 1/2 mile due south of me.

Interesting all around.

The new D-52 (5 bands, 2 traps, and about 23' longer than the D-56) has been ordered and should be here any day now. That, too, should be interesting.

10 meters

So I had this old homebrew 10-m dipole. Been meaning to put it up for ages. Measured it up today and found that it was a little short (meaning its sweet spot would be a little high). Looked at the copper and decided to replace it. The wire I used was the very thin multi-strand stuff that Radio Shack sells/used to sell in a SWL longwire kit. I still had a bunch so I decided to take 35' or so, fold it in half, and twist it together. Tinned up the middle of the result, snipped it, and then attached it to the balun. Almost made it to short again (memo to self: cut them 1 foot longer than required!).

According to the borrowed SWR analyzer I have, the deepest part of the dip is around 28.400. That's excellent ... except that the SWR is 1.8:1. That's not bad and I don't even need the tuner for that, but it should be a lot closer to 1:1.

Anyway, I tuned through the band and heard a strong signal about 28.400. Called him and was 59 ... in Tucson. Seems like there was a bit of a Sporadic-E opening this afternoon. Heard a couple other stations, but only worked the W7.

HK0 was on today, too, down on 20 m, but I really couldn't hear the guy. HUGE pileup. Would have been #125.

Yep, need a new antenna

Well, actually, it still works from 80 - 15, and I do have a 10-m dipole ready to put up.

Last night on the local 10-m net, I managed to tune up OK before the net, and even chatted briefly with some locals, pre-net. It's a roll-call net (though we take check-ins as well) and when it was my turn, I launched into a monologue.

About a minute or 2 in, clink, off went the tuner. A ha. I was able to tune up again, but I kept transmissions short after that.

I gather that there is a heat sensor or something in the ATU of the IC-746Pro that kicks it off if it's working too hard. Evidently, 8.5:1 SWR is too much for it to digest, at least for very long.

What I'd really like to do is replace the D-56 with the D-52. Same 80-10 coverage, but with only 2 traps. About 23 extra feet of copper, but I have the trees to do that. Problem is, Spi-Ro Manufacturing seems to have gone out of business.

BULLETIN!! Just checked the site and it's been updated with an eBay store link. Great - I might be able to order the antenna after all!

Might need a new skywire

Well, I might have blown a trap on the 5-band Trap Dipole. It's a 15-year-old Spi-Ro D-56 and, pending confirmation tonight, it appears one of the 10-m traps has died. The SWR was never flat across all of 10 meters, but it was never > 6:1 over any of it that I recall. If I recheck and it really is that high on 10, I may not even be able to check in on the local weekly 10-m net. As the immortal Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, "Well it just goes to show you, it's always something." I'll spare you the rest.

Loss

Found a neat feedline loss calculator. Took it for a spin using numbers from my upgraded 5-band trap dipole coax. I was always under the impression that the quality of coax, mainly the loss figures, didn't really matter a whole lot at HF. Above 100 MHz, sure, and especially above 400 MHz (for the scanners), but not below 30 MHz.

Ha.

         RG8X 110'     9913 60'     
f (MHz)  W @ antenna   W @ antenna  Increase in power @ antenna (W)
28.4     62.6          90.6         28.0
21.2     66.8          91.9         25.1
14.2     72.0          93.3         21.3
7.2      79.3          95.2         15.9
3.6      84.9          96.6         11.7

I assumed 1.5:1 SWR, though I haven't made specific measurements - the dipole is closer to resonant on 15 m (don't need the tuner) than it is on 10 or 80 m (definitely need the tuner), but 1.5 is probably close to an average.

But man, a 28 W improvement on the local Wednesday night 10-m net? Wow.

So this really does change things w/r/t the RFI situation.

Conduit update

Spouse did some gardening today.



And some fishing.

Oh, yeah. The WARC dipole

Forgot to post this.

To recap, [spouse] and I got *one* end of the WARC trap dipole (30-12 m)
over the Walnut tree but then I kept losing weights and breaking
monofilament trying to shoot over the Sycamore (doesn't help that
there is a Blackjack Oak in the way). Grr.

Went to Atwoods yesterday and got some 20-lb-test line and [spouse]
picked up some fairly big washers to use as weights today.

Got home a little early and started shooting again. *Finally* got the
monofilament over the tree and hauled up the support rope, then guided
the dipole over the in-the-way Blackjack Oak and into the air. Phew.
Coax was already attached from the other day.

It's windy, as you may have noticed, and I see that the Sycamore moves
a whole lot more than the trees that the 5-band-trap is over (a
different Blackjack Oak and a different Walnut). We left a little
slack to see how it's going to settle. With the other antenna, there
is hardly any movement and I've tightened it up maybe three times
since it went up in 2006.

So I come inside and turn on the IC725. I set the *manual* tuner to
bypass to check out the bands. Nearly flat on all three!! Whoo hoo!

Hey. Is that a station I hear on 18.235? Sure enough ... worked
VK9DWX (Willis Is) on the first try.

Yes, I am having fun - why do you ask??? :-)

Thanks to [spouse] - couldn't have done it alone.