QST de N7GMT

OK, so I built some antenna supports. A friend of mine, KE7JSM, found the design in the ARRL Antenna book. His looked so nice that I thought I’d build a few to prop up a G5RV and the corners of my 80-meter horizontal loop.

The original plans call for 22?-long 2×2s …. Right, like anyone can find 22? 2×2s at the local hardware store. Anyway, picture three long-ish 2×2 pieces (16? in my case), bolted together such that the bottom two flare out as legs—not unlike the Eiffel tower in profile—and the third is sandwiched between them at the top, extending up another full length.

Got it? I hope so, because I’m hoping not to have to try to explain it any better, other than to say these things I built are just over 30 feet tall, and flare out to about 4? wide.

Now. You gotta stand that up. By yourself. ‘Cause it’s late evening. Your brother-in-law would come over, but it’s late. Oh, and you have to do all this in the dark. (I did mention it was late, yes?)

Attempt #1

I had fitted the top of the support with a small cup-hook so I could put a marine pulley up there. This would allow me to raise and lower the feed-point without having to muck with the support itself. To keep the pulley from un-hooking itself, I put a UV-resistant cable-tie (zip-tie) across the cup. Pretty slick, I thought to myself. And I even triple-checked that I had the wires, ropes, feed-line, and pulley all properly aligned so I wouldn’t have to cut the cable-tie and get another out of the garage. (It’s all of fifty feet away, but I’m lazy. More on that in a bit.)

Triple checked.

And still got it wrong. Had to cut the cable-tie and fetch some more from the garage, but at least I was clever enough to grab three ties, instead of just the one I needed. (It would have rained, if I had washed that car.)

Attempt #2

The various lines are—again—all sorted out. I’m pretty sure. So. Now I gotta figure out how to get the thing vertical. On practice runs (without all the wires and ropes) I tried “walking” it up, but the bottom end would come off the ground once I got past the Magic Fulcrum Point™. Bracing the bottom end against a “turf stone” (think 72 lbs. of concrete in a 2×3-foot lattice pattern; grass can grow through the holes, but you can drive on it) … that worked OK but still wasn’t easy to do, and as the old saying goes, “If you have a difficult job, give it to a lazy man; he’ll find an easier way to do it.”

As my XYL will witness, I am that man.

Rope. I have rope. Nice new ½-in. poly-rope. Easy to hold, pretty easy to see in the dark (I mentioned it was late, right?)… now, where to tie it …. Ah! Where the three pieces are bolted together there’s a natural double-ledge to keep the rope from sliding down. Tie a nice secure knot—one doesn’t want the antenna support to suddenly break free, come crashing down, and destroy all that hard work, right? (Did I mention the three coats of paint?)

The support is … well, “lying” might be the best description … the bottom end is on the grass about 20? from our deck; the top bit is lying across the railing at about 7? … puts the whole thing at about a 20-25° angle, I guess. Anyway, I used another 8? length of 2×2 to push it up just a little higher, so it won’t be quite so hard to “gin” up.

Everything is set. Support in place. Rope tied to support. Turf-stone ready. Gloves on (I’m a wimp, in addition to being lazy). Rope wrapped around the arms for some extra grip. Ready … PULL! A … little … unwieldy but … getting there …. Up … she … comes … and there! She’s vertical! <w00t!>

I stand there, holding my masterpiece, gazing up at it … and wonder how the <boop> I’m going to get the rope off. <stare> It’s a nice knot I tied. <stare> Very secure. <stare> About 10? above my head. … <sigh> Think, think, stare, think, stare. Nope, no good; gotta come back down. Well, it can’t be much worse than going up, right? Let’s just say that the descent wasn’t quite as controlled as I would have liked, trying to hold the rope with just my hands and arms.

Attempt #3

Untie that very secure knot. Think, think, think. “Do I know any knots that I can untie remotely?” More thinking. Nope. I’ll just have to loop it around that ledgey area and keep an eye on it. (It turns out this was plenty secure, just twice around the upper support, holding both lengths of rope as I pull.)

Bubbling up from the deep recesses of my memory, I seem to recall that it’s easier to belay someone while climbing or rappeling if you put the rope around your back and use the friction to help control the process. Should be applicable here, so the rope goes over one shoulder and back up between the legs. (Not nearly as … erm, problematic as it might sound, especially for someone who has ever tied their own rappelling harness from 1? tubular webbing.)

Lean back on the rope, bracing against the turf-stone, and—hey! this is much easier … up she comes. Ha! Take that, you silly Enlisch knig– I mean, antenna support!

Now I walk it over to the deck, which will be my temporary support until I figure out a more permanent solution (or was that explanation unnecessarily redundant?). Hmm … the ground is uneven on the side of the deck where I want the support to stand; it’s going to lean quite a bit. Well, the deck isn’t doing anything else useful; it might as well hold the support upright while I fetch a shovel to level the playing field– I mean, footing for the antenna support. Shovel, shovel, scrape, shovel, done. Move the beast around the corner and into position … beautiful.

Now to pull the feed-line rope to raise … the … erm … where’s the rop– … my, that’s a nice tidy bundle of rope up there, jammed against the pulley. Thirty feet in the air. <stare> I can’t reach that. <stare> That’s even higher than the silly gin-rope knot. <stare> Well, fooey; it’s gotta come back down.

Attempt #4

Have you ever tried to move a very tall, wide-ish, flexible something, say, twenty feet horizontally? Without it crashing to the ground, of course. Tricky. I had the opportunity to get pretty good at it. There’s a knack to it. Buy me a cup of something soothing sometime and I’ll tell you how it’s done.

So, support back across the lawn to the turf-stone. Rope back in that nigh-compromising configuration. (Good thing it’s nearly midnight, so the neighbors can’t see this dance.) Support back down against the deck. (Much better control coming down as well, by the way, with this “climber’s” configuration.) Un-bundle the rope, and secure the end to the bottom of the support so it doesn’t just go zinging up to the pulley all by its little lonesome.

See? I’m learning.

Back to the ropes. Brace. Pull! Up, up, nearly there, … wha– why won’t it … stuck … at 75° … won’t <tug> budge …. At this point I wanted to smack my forehead, but my hands were full of gin rope: the feed-point rope was snagged on the lilac bush next to the deck. Couldn’t shake it loose.

Attempt #5

Lowering … down, down, done. Walk calmly over to the offending bush. Politely inform both the rope and the bush that I am feeling slightly frustrated by the whole situation, and would they please stop their tom-foolery. I guess they felt guilty about the little prank, judging by the way the rope leapt from the bush and the bush threw a few leaves about. Completely voluntary, I assure you.

Feed-point rope carefully laid along the support, well away from the meddlesome lilac bush. Gin-ropes in hand. Brace and pull … and up! I’m getting this down; once everything is ready to go it takes literally just a few seconds to get the support vertical. And I’m pretty sure none of the neighbors heard any of the <ahem> conversation with the twin trouble-makers, Bush and Rope.

Walk the support back into place … very nice. Now up onto the deck for some final positioning. “Wow! It’s much easier to handle from the 10? level.” And now for the cool bit: pull the feed-point rope and watch as it gently raises into the air … and snags on the corner of the house. (Where’s that spare 8? 2×2?! Un-snag. I’m not counting this as another attempt; I’m not It’s still vertical.) And all the … way … up … well, nearly. The G5RV element wires are now taunt out to the temporary end supports, but that’s good because it’s helping keep the antenna support guyed.

A quick tie-off with the gin-rope to keep it from blowing over into the lilac bush, and I’m off to bed! (Feeling rather proud of my [nocturnal] antenna efforts.)

Attempt #6

So I mentioned that I had it tied off with the gin-rope, right? Well, that tie-off was roughly in the same direction as the south-east element. If a strong wind were to suddenly come gusting, say, the next day from, say, the north-east … why, we would call that “an orthogonal vector” and feel very smart.

But if we were to look out the window at our nice, new antenna support, we might wonder why we couldn’t see said support. “Where the <boop> did it go?” I believe was my actual reaction.

Turns out an antenna support, which has not been guyed for NE-SW winds … well, it will easily topple, tangle, and try to hide inside the nearest <booping> lilac bush. Quite a trick, for a 30? antenna support to hide in an 8? round bush.

It took me a good half-hour to get things un-tensioned (copper-clad steel—even 16 AWG—is pretty tough stuff), straightened out, and ready to raise. Again.

I spared no rope when lashing it firmly to the deck. This time.

I’m happy to say it’s still standing. We’ve had a couple of storms blow through and it seems to be just find. Finally.

(Stop laughing; it wasn’t that funny. Well, maybe it was.)

I’ll try to get pictures of the structure, for those with nearly as little imagination as I. Especially when handicapped by my linguistic skills in describing the structure. And stuff. But it’s <ahem> again after midnight, and the XYL is using gentle reminders that I have to work tomorrow, so …