Antenna Takedown
March 6, 2025
I went up into the woods and started lowering the wire antennas. I also untied the various radials on the elevated 160m vertical that were tied to trees.
March 7, 2025
Mark KW1X came over to help. It was a blustery day in the low 40s and the wind was howling. We decided to start on some easy projects close to the ground.
First was the removal of the two tower sections that were holding up the feed point of the elevated 160 vertical.
Then we moved on to removing a Cushcraft A-3WS that was side-mounted about 30′ up a tower.
That went quickly so we started looking at the stack of 4-element 10-meter beams at 30′ and 60′ on tower 2. Before we could remove them, we needed to remove the shunt feed for 160m. That was a 65′ piece of aluminum tubing. I tied the shunt arm off to a rope and was able to lower it down. It was windy but didn’t seem too bad.
On to the 10-meter beams. The first one was only 30′ up. It took no time at all (gravity is very helpful when removing antennas).
The wind seemed to slacken so we were emboldened to work on the one at 60′. When I cleared the tree line around 55′, I realized how much the wind had increased. There had to be gusts in the 40mph range. I was holding on afraid to unclip to reposition the belt. Then my glasses flew off and landed 100′ down range…
The antenna came off and was easily lowered down to the ground. We both decided that was enough for one day. Amazing how much we got done in just 3 hours.
March 8, 2025
I took apart all of the antennas we had lowered and prepared them for the move. A 20′ U-Haul truck has a 16′ bed. The goal was to have all the antenna pieces be shorter than that or could be positioned into the extra area over the passenger cab.
This was another 3-4 hours of working time.
March 9, 2025
Mark KW1X returned on a day that was not as cold and not as windy. The goal for today was to remove the side mount antennas on Tower 1 and take down the 80m dipole that was strung between the towers.
First up was the 5-ele Hygain 155CA at 33′.
That didn’t take long at all. Well, except for the rusted bolts that took forever to remove the nuts. I learned the value of stainless steel hardware multiple times this day. Especially for things that have been in the weather for nearly 30 years!
We removed the lower Hygain 205CA that was at 50′ without issue. You don’t realize how big a 20 meter mono-bander is until you have it in your hand trying to maneuver it around a guy wire.
We took a bit of a break to lower the 80 meter dipole. Of course, the rope caught on the top of the tower on one side so we rolled up what we could. Mark is a professional electrician and a master at rolling up cables!
Next was another Hygain 155CA at 66′. It was on a side mount, so it didn’t take long to loosen the bolts and lift it off. We managed to get past two sets of guy wires without bending it up.
We then removed the swinging gate rotatable side mount. One bold refused to loosen or break off, so Mark had to send the electric saw up to cut it off. The side mount was obtained from W8JGU more than 40 years ago and it is a great design and has worked well.
Last item for the day was to remove the 30 meter dipole at 80′. That was easy compared to the rest of the antennas!
Once again, an amazing amount of work in just 4 hours.
March 11
The weather felt like Spring. Temperatures were in the low 60s, with plenty of sun, and almost no wind. Of course, no tower climbing projects were planned for the day. But, it did give me a chance to take apart some antennas and start to remove the cable runs. This station has 8 separate coax cables/hardline plus another 10 control cables. Tower 1 is 275′ from the house and Tower 2 is 250′ away.
I had to take advantage of the nice weather. I climbed to the top of Tower 2 to free the role for the 80 meter dipole. While I was there, I removed all the catenary ropes that had been holding up the 80 meter 4 square.
I removed all the remote coax relays and the box containing the 160 shunt-feed capacitor.
All of the coaxes back to the shack were run on messenger cables to keep the critters from chewing them up. I started liberating cables and pulling them down the hill. Lots more to do to get everything pulled and coiled.
It was another good 4 hours of progress.