Got around fairly early today and out, hooked up the trailer and off to Lowes for parts… needed some new 2×4’s and some quick Crete… the big storm did damage all over the place… of course the antennas, radios and all that are being replaced… slowly.
It might be a while before I get the tower laid down and replace the VHF/UHF antennas… the HF antennas ( mostly wire) appear to be ok… still need to test the Windom but the loop looks ok , once I get it back up… the big wind tore down one of the corners..
I got that in the shop the other day and pulled it apart to salvage what was still useable… that is why I went to Lowes… got the parts and stuff and back to work on the antennas poles…
Once that was done I tested the last of my big power supplies , since the storm killed the one I had used for 10 years… maybe I will fix it maybe not but I had a spare so I will fix it up to use and when I have time this winter will look at the other one to see if it is fixable…
I intend to put covers on it, a plug, and volt meter with out let studs through the cover… the last one was open… I never did get it covered… I don’t look great but works with Over Voltage protection, current limit and voltage adjust in a limited range… it was a big commercial unit we used in the oil field long ago and I ended up with 5 of them when they got fazed out… I donated 3 of them to a local ham club years ago… they are using 2 of them for repeaters.
I also found that the drain ditch had a wash out… moved some damn big rocks down stream in that flow…
Hard to tell but that big ridge is a bunch of rocks that moved from where I am standing…
That black mat was covered with rocks and they were all down below… so I have to move that back…
The black mat is covered again and that ridge that was down below is moved back up… that is why I bought some quick Crete, I am going to try to “tie-down” some of the mid section that tends to wash out… put some concrete down in the cracks and tied a bunch of rocks together so it has to move them all or none… worked above so going to have to do some below… I also have a big hole that needs filling where the water shoots off the end of some concrete apron…
I started filling it with some old left over stones from the house and ran out of energy before I got it filled enough but I think I need to do some layers in this one… it is pretty deep… so will dump in a couple of loads of concrete and spread it out then some more rocks and a bit more concrete to tie that all down… It appears half the neighbor hood comes down my drainage ditch and when it rains real hard… that is one hell of a river…
After “left-over” dinner I headed back to the shop to work on a few things… I have the airplane for GS#3 done except for trimming the center bar and putting on the prop nut… I had to glue on a “push-nut” to hold it in place and had to wait for them to arrive today… I finally found some the right size on Amazon and got them in today so maybe that will simplify and make things a little nicer.
Like the previous plan I made two Cowls for this, one in black and one in gold and white… owners choice – pull the prop, cut the tape, replace and tape the new cowl in, put the prop back on… just that easy…
Need to trim that center rod to just enough for the prop nut…
While I wait for the glue to dry on the push nut setup… I cut out and put two more humming birds together tonight as well…
Slowly I am getting a little better at this… oh and the prop nut is in the foreground that will go on the airplane…
So I actually got several things done today and feel it tonight… moving those rocks was a pain …. in the back… and for a closing thought tonight…
Years ago I wish I could have told several people that… ha! but now… I just don’t care.
WD0AJG