Chapter 9
Now it's the Thursday before MAQP weekend. I'm at work until 9PM. I think everything's okay, even when the storm blows in. Wind, rain, thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening. When I arrived at home, the weather was so foul that I merely ran into the house without looking up.
Imagine my surprise when I took the dogs out Friday morning, and found the dipole in a puddle.
Turns out the wire I soldered to the twinlead to make the 75m side of the dipole had broken right at the joint.
Woe! Calamity! Horror!
No problem. I'll just solder it back together; that'll get me through the weekend. Plus, I've got all morning, because Friday I don't have to be in the office until 1PM.
I just soldered it back together, and proceeded to string it back up. As I was hoisting it back up, I sensed resistance; thinking it was just a kink in the rope, I gave it a yank.
Snap!
Damn! Same break, just on the other side. Utterly furious, I spool up the extra wire and toss it into the summer kitchen.
It's now 10:30AM. I know I'm not going to have time tonight to pull something together. It's now or never.
Out comes the remains of the polyethylene cutting board. A few quick cuts with the jigsaw later, I have five rectangular bits of plastic. I drilled enough holes to fit rope, wire, and a spare panel-mount SO-239 connector, so that I had a center insulator and four "end" insulators. 120' of wire and a few stainless bits, and it was finished.
By 12:05, it was up. I had already been on and off the roof, attached one end to the chimney, and tossed the other end into the walnut tree. I had about thirty seconds to test it.
The doublet loaded okay, though it wasn't as good as I thought it'd be. I had had to fold over a piece on each end to make it fit the available space, and that was playing merry hell with the thing.
Gotta leave it for now. Maybe I can catch up with it Sunday morning...
Imagine my surprise when I took the dogs out Friday morning, and found the dipole in a puddle.
Turns out the wire I soldered to the twinlead to make the 75m side of the dipole had broken right at the joint.
Woe! Calamity! Horror!
No problem. I'll just solder it back together; that'll get me through the weekend. Plus, I've got all morning, because Friday I don't have to be in the office until 1PM.
I just soldered it back together, and proceeded to string it back up. As I was hoisting it back up, I sensed resistance; thinking it was just a kink in the rope, I gave it a yank.
Snap!
Damn! Same break, just on the other side. Utterly furious, I spool up the extra wire and toss it into the summer kitchen.
It's now 10:30AM. I know I'm not going to have time tonight to pull something together. It's now or never.
Out comes the remains of the polyethylene cutting board. A few quick cuts with the jigsaw later, I have five rectangular bits of plastic. I drilled enough holes to fit rope, wire, and a spare panel-mount SO-239 connector, so that I had a center insulator and four "end" insulators. 120' of wire and a few stainless bits, and it was finished.
By 12:05, it was up. I had already been on and off the roof, attached one end to the chimney, and tossed the other end into the walnut tree. I had about thirty seconds to test it.
The doublet loaded okay, though it wasn't as good as I thought it'd be. I had had to fold over a piece on each end to make it fit the available space, and that was playing merry hell with the thing.
Gotta leave it for now. Maybe I can catch up with it Sunday morning...
posted by R P Davis at 17:03
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