An urgent EVA to repair a broken power module on the ISS was performed on 2019-10-18. This work has caused the ARISS schedule to be moved back and is currently in flux. At this time the LARG ARISS team doesn’t know when the new window will be. Although based on orbital predictions it should be in the morning between 9a and 12p.
Setup is still targeted for the week of 2019-10-21.
80m – 3675 KHz on 18 OCT 2019 Open 0000Z
Listening 3813 KHz for General class ops to check-in
QNI:
W0MPM John
W5ODJ John
KE4S Dave, net control
We discussed our current progress on antenna projects, software upgrades, and vagaries of telecom company provisioning and billing. We closed at 0032Z.
Please join us next week or any Thursday at 8:00PM.
73 de Dave KE4S
About 4 weeks ago I had an error on my SteppIR controller indicating that something was wrong managing the tape(s) in the element housings of my SteppIR antenna. After some troubleshooting on the ground looking up I decided it was time to take the tower down for some maintenance to see what was the matter.
Tower #2 down for maintenance.
It takes me about 10 minutes to get my tower and antenna on the ground where I can work on it. There are two electric worm drives that allow me to put it on the ground as indicated above. I didn’t get to work on it the night I brought it down but did go out there the next day to see what I could find.
In the past it’s been wiring that caused controller errors (of my own making). There are 16 wires that run the 4 step motors that control the elements. When I bought the antenna many years ago it was one of the first models they offered. They really hadn’t had the years of experience required to work outcome of the kinks that show up with years of operation of a product like this. Because of this, some of the cables, connectors and methods used were really not up for being outdoors for years in all kinds of weather, temperatures and sunshine.
Having said that, I’ve not had much trouble with the antenna in spite of all of it’s moving parts. The only other time I had an issue was when a plastic cog broke inside the motor housing (EHU) on the driven element.
Ironically, that’s how tower #2 was born. The driven element when the antenna was located on tower #1 required the use of a crane to repair. After struggling with the decision on how to manage this antenna into my future I decided it needed to be on a different structure; one that I could manage for years to come. That decision has really paid off allowing me to properly maintain this antenna over time. Much more planning, working with the county, permits, designing, drawings, etc. I built tower #2 that you see here.
Back to my problem. After some troubleshooting I figured out what was wrong. With all the elements supposed to be in the retracted position one of the tubes had something in it rattling. What could that be?
Broken copper tape.
Copper tape broken inside tube.
One of the tapes was broken. The other was bent. After further troubleshooting I realized that the rewinding mechanism the tapes use failed on one of the tapes causing excess tape to be unreeled inside the EHU housing. It appeared the step motor bent the tapes essentially destroying them both.
I had to leave for business then vacation but before I left I ordered replacement tapes from SteppIR along with some other small things like gaskets that I could replace once I got into my project. They shipped the stuff to me when I was out of town. It was waiting for me upon my arrival home.
While I was gone I decided that I was going to do what I’ve been wanting to do for some time and that was to rewire all the EHUs with better control cable without any breaks all the way to the base of the tower where it is interfaced with a controller. That work took a few days. I had to pull off every motor, take down all of the old cable, rewire the motors and put everything back in place.
Rewire of old EHU.
New Cable Glands.
Old EHU (reflector)
New EHU connector.
Newer EHU (driven)
To rewire the motors I bought 500 feet of 4-wire control cable from DX Engineering. I would end up using all but about 50 feet of that. Once you run the cable up the tower and out to the motors it’s about 80-ish feet of cable.
All of that cable comes into a new enclosure I decided to also build. The enclosure is from Home Depot, the cable glands from EBay. The device on the inside is one of the original SteppIR doo-dads used to eliminate line noise and provide a path to ground (voltage suppressor). I’ve never like that it was outside cabled with inside-grade cable. So I put the whole shooting match on the inside of an enclosure out of reach of the sun and weather.
Re-terminated all 16 wires to each of the 4 step motors. Hopefully this new wiring will eliminate any outdoor mess that tends to follow these cables (corrosion and the like).
After wiring everything back up I brought the controller out to do a test run. Much to my surprise, I got the wiring correct on the first run and everything tested out perfectly. Sweet!
Since the tower was down I took the opportunity to grease all the trust bearings (there are 3 of them), cold galvanize any minor rust I could find, use Fluid Film on fittings that tend to rust and then waxed the skids on the tower sections.
I used the worm drives to bring the tower back to it’s upright position, fastened all of the bolts back in place and finished dressing the cable down to the base of the tower while lifting the tower into it’s fullest up position.
Tower #2 in foreground back in operation. Tower #1 in background. Dipole for 160, 80 and 40 meters on poles.
I cleaned and dressed the chain for the primary motor and tested the up and down movement of the tower to be perfect. I was back in action!
The antenna is really amazing to operate. I’m glad to have this project done before things get really cold. I’ll be using this antenna a lot this winter. After the repairs I’ve been able to make contacts all over the world in all different modes.
I did the work all myself. The parts from SteppIR were $110 and the cable from DX was $166. I bought this antenna on January 23, 2008, almost 12 years ago. Many people tell me that the maintenance of this antenna is too much to bear and keeps them from owning one. I beg to differ.
What a wonderful piece of kit this antenna has been. I’ve enjoyed every bit about it. From the original purchase, construction and lifting on to my first tower and then on to its final place on tower #2 it has been a joy to use.
We had a good CW slow-speed net tonight on 80 meters. Attendees were:
K3WD, Bill
K79N, Chris
W5ODJ, John (NCS)
These guys tolerated my slowness again this week. But happy to report my slowness was 100% hand generated. And they were, apparently, still able to copy me. Miracles do happen.
The band was in excellent shape tonight. Signals were strong and clear.
Hope to see you on one of the CW nets in the future. Trust me, if I can do it you can too.
As you likely know we meet on Monday evenings on the Frederick K3MAD 224.200 repeater (123 hz PL) for a 30 minute net. I am happy to report this Monday was my first check-in to this net. I finally got my HT working as it should on this frequency. It worked surprisingly well.
Those who checked in:
K2BFY, Henry (NCS)
W5ODJ, John
I’m glad I checked my HT. My battery is “swollen” so I need to repair that.
This is the post-net report for the most famous Sunday Night Net held by the Loudoun Amateur Radio Group on 2-Meters FM. Tonight the net was held on the 146.700 MHz (-) (No tone ) at 8:30 PM sharp. KN4AWT (Jim) was NCS for the evening.
Those who checked in were:
KN4AWT – Jim (NCS)
KC5CG – Gump
N2CV – Al*
KN4YOV – John*
N4PD – Paul
WA4TXE – Dave
* Signifies that the station was unintelligible or couldn’t be heard after checkin.
Conditions on the WA4TXE repeater were challenging. Only those within the Leesburg, VA area where able to be heard reliably by NCS. Dave, the owner of the repeater, was monitoring on the control line and explained that he is aware of the issues and needs to go onsite to make adjustments to the antenna connection. The net was closed at 8:49 PM.
There was a very informal digital net tonight on 40 meters at 7.07325 Mhz. Myself, W5ODJ, and John, W0MPM, had a nice chat on a very quiet band tonight. We started a little late at 19:33 local time and ended about 20:05.
John was loud and clear at my QTH with a SNR at or above 25dB the entire conversation with 100% copy.
80m – 3670 KHz on 11 OCT 2019 Open 0000Z
Listening 3815 KHz for General class ops to check-in
QNI:
K3WD Bill
KE4S Dave, net control
Called the net on 3670 to be clear of traffic just above our normal frequency. Signals good, but some QRN as background at S7. We talked a bit about the weather in the west, and about our antenna work. My tower is likely to be back in service in the next couple of days, so I should have it ready before winter storms arrive. This net is open for anyone to check in – please join us every Thursday at 8:00PM.
Closed 0015Z
10m – on 28.405 MHz
No net tonight. My wire antennas do not tune 10 meters, and nobody picked it up.
73 de Dave KE4S
