So this is kind of an update for
the rigging up the tower.
What actually took place on
the 85 repeater as we were getting at repaired.
So we we arrived
at about semaphore D on the 5th of April,
we unloaded the coag staph or trailer.
We unloaded the antenna,
move the trailer out of the fenced area.
We unloaded Randy's truck which had
all the clips in and other stuff.
We also had the and 10
on that we unloaded off my trailer.
Pete connected up lift pull lift chains to the left,
pulls that run the code and tell
our group showed up about 930 on that Monday.
It was windy but
calm enough where they were going to start work and
we discussed with them what we were going to or
how we're going to proceed with that project.
The tower leads stated that for
Monday they would get the tower rigged,
so lift and probably no more.
And we also ask that to
have the antenna lowered as soon as possible.
We can do our work on getting the old antenna off of
the H bridge and new antenna put
on and then also testing the intent.
So at about that time it was probably close.
Ten Mark went to town to get some materials.
Randy and was inside
the building and working on the repeater.
And myself and Pete.
We're outside and we removed the old collect from
the building and ice bridge
as a tower crew was setting up.
So we removed about 90 to a 100 feet of
the 78 hard line and cut it off at the base of the tower.
We inspected at the base
expecting that there would be water in there,
so assigns a corrosion,
but there really was
no signs of corrosion at the bottom of
the antenna or at
the bottom of that codecs at the base of the tower.
So a little bit later in the day,
randy and myself adjusted the courtesy tone on
the repeater so that it was at a more balanced level.
So, so here's a picture of
where the co-actors comes out of the building,
where the transmitter is,
and it goes up onto the ice bridge.
So we were removing
the wax out of the building there, again,
here's a close up of it's coming through the building and
close-up of it up on the ice bridge as we were
cutting the it was held up by nylon wire tie.
So we cut those loosen and got
that and that codecs freed from
the ice bridge so we'd be ready for the new one
when it was installed.
So here's a picture of our crew getting ready to rig
up to get to the top,
about 600 feet up so that they could hook up,
lift point up there.
So here are the two guys that to climb in
the tower on these two pretty much
did most of the work on Monday.
And so they climbed up and basically got
that tagline or that lip line
all the way up to the 600 foot mark,
which is actually just below the third guy wire.
There's four total sets.
So guy wires, they were just blow the third.
So you'll see that as we're moving up on the tower here.
So this is a picture of the first guy wire.
At the very top of the picture here.
So we look right about here.
You can see it.
And you can also see if you look real close,
the wine coming out from the tower.
This is the wind blowing that line away from the tower.
So it started to get
windier and windy or as the day went on.
So again, they're getting a little bit
higher and higher on the tower, these different pictures.
So just a different angle again,
they're kinda right in the middle here.
They are now above the AT and T tower,
and they're above the FM transmitter,
low power transmitters.
Every time they would go pass the FM transmitter,
we would have to have it shut
off and then say cleared it.
We could have it turn back on.
Arc was the one who would be
communicating with the radio station.
So here again is one of the gentlemen climbing the tower.
And on this one, you can see
the guy wires up at the top up here.
But then you can also see this is
that line there pulling up and
the wind is really starting to pull on it.
So it was kind of a challenge for them.
So on day 2,
Tuesday the sixth, the old antenna came down.
And so here we have them rigging
up and trying to take the old antenna off.
And they've got it rigged and ready
to lower in this picture so you can
see his feet there and he's lean and out to keep it away.
And there's gentleman on the ground
pulling on it to get it away from the tower.
So has the antenna came down.
And we were able to then
get it past all of the other antennas.
So in this one you can see that there is a,
another little and 10 and below it,
we had to stay away from those as we were going.
So and so We did they did an inspection on
the old antenna and found
that there was some issues with the connectors.
So here was the antenna.
They swept the antenna and they found that
it actually a lot of frequency.
So the 146 is at the dashed line here in the screen.
You can see that we're closer to a
150 or the antenna is tuned.
So there is a little out of tune as well.
So here is the actual base of the antenna.
And you can see that there is
some what appears to be carbon,
like it had been arguing and it was
really evident at the pin itself.
So here is the codecs and, and again,
you can see that there's a lot of carbon there
like it had been working across.
So here's a picture of what the end looked like.
It looked like it had a bend in it,
pretty significant right through, through here.
And again, another picture of the end of the song.
There's some different pictures there.
So, so they got
the new antenna rigged up on the third day.
And here they're lifting that new
and 10 are getting ready to lift it up.
And it is now flying.
So you can see it kinda at the base of the antenna here.
And as it's going up again,
they had to keep it away from the AT and T cell tower.
And also some of the other.
Or up a little higher.
They got it in place and they're getting it
secured at that five hundred
and eighty five hundred and ninety
foot mark.
So here are some of
the things that they did on the eight,
which would have been on
the force date on this would have been Thursday.
So the 1120, the,
all the sweeps on the antenna past.
So the antenna is up there
and they swept it at all or to good.
At 1230 tower crew has moved blow
the antenna and Mark and Rick test,
excuse me, not mark P to
enteric tested the repeater for any loss.
Receiver sensitivity.
Everything looked good at performed well.
At 1250, they removed
the isolation t and
connected the repeater back to the antenna.
And they texted mark and Randy that it was back online.
Randy reported that he was unable to
bring the repeater up at about 1252.
So about two minutes after they brought it up.
And so they started looking into it.
So they troubleshoot the issue.
They did a distance default sweep and found that
their showed that there was an
open at or near the antenna.
So they alerted the tower crew, lead the tower.
Curly reviewed their previous good and now bad sweeps.
I'm Peter and Rick.
Tower, crew lead instructed to
our crew to return to the seventh,
eighth inch jumper connection
point and remove the weather proofing and inspect it.
Pete reminded them to
the tower crew lead of inspection that
the DIN connector be properly
torqued with a DIN torque wrench.
The tower crew lead says didn't torque
wrench says The didn't torque wrench
sent with a tower crew and
radio tower crew to
use the torque wrench on the connection.
So as they were.
So Pete then texted some photos of the distance of
felt good and bad to Mark and Randy and had a discussion.
So once the tower crew had
finished redoing the connection and weather proofing it.
Or excuse me, not weather proofing,
but basically making the connection,
the sweeps where again good at about 230.
And they match the earlier lead, earlier sweep.
So the tower crew then we're instructed to
weatherproof it and return to
hanging collects on the tower legs.
At between 230 and five.
Peter and Rick monitored
the distance default sweep
while Tower Cuz we're attaching the codecs.
And then Pete and Rick basically
installed supports for codecs under the ice bridge.
So at about 510,
rick departed and had
about seven or eight 540 tar crew
had about a 100 feet left to secure.
So Pete conducted new tests
for any loss or receiver sensitivity when transmitting,
results are the same as those taken at 1230.
And so you return the repeater to serve
as both Mark and
Rick could hear the repeater and service.
And then they texted Mike,
basically saying that everything was good.
So between 540 and 710,
Pete just monitored the repeater and the tower crew as a
finished their work securing
the co-actors to the tower leg.
So at 710, everybody,
they secured the site and departed.
So, so here is some pictures of the new clips going on.
So it's kinda tough to see on this picture,
but to the outside of
the leg here where my cursor is moving,
you will see that the clips are in place.
And so the next few pictures are just showing
them how they were actually putting them on.
So kinda interesting to see that
the two gentlemen are about 10 feet apart,
hanging off of the lift cable
and installing Eclipse as they were moving down.
So as they were moving down,
then they would install the codecs
into those clips as ever going.
So again, not real exciting pictures,
but kinda neat to see how they had to do
it and where that co x is now secured,
secured on the outside of the leg
quite often and shouldn't have any problem with it.
Blowing in the wind are coming loose.
So again, as they work down,
they got the codecs clipped into the leads.
And now we can see that coag.
So if we look above them,
it is right on the side here.
And they're now working on putting
the coag into the clips.
So again, not too exciting.
And you can pause this at any point
and take a look at some of these pictures.
I also put the pictures in a PowerPoint so you
can stop at any point and observe what's going on.
But yeah, I'd just like to say thank
you to everybody involved.
Piet, marc, Randy, Rick.
Greatly appreciate all the work that you've done over
the past few years getting this done, Zack as well.
And many other people at on
the in the club assisted with this.
So just thank you to everybody.
It's good to see that 85 is backup and running and it
will be secured for a long time to come.