Murphy visits my QTH… You remember Murphy don’t you??? They named that law after him. If I remember correctly it goes something like this… “If it can go wrong… it will!!!“
I got notification today that in addition to the work that will be going on on our row house unit with regards to the flashing and the roof they will also be replacing some windows which will include our basement window… When they were just doing the flashing and roof all I had to do was take down one mast and disconnect the long wire so they could get their ladders against the side of the house…
The problem with this is that all my antenna feed lines come out of this window so on Easter Monday I will have to remove all antennas, lines, counterpoises etc so the contractors can have unobstructed access while they are doing their work.
In addition to this I have to control “Toby” while they are on the premisis. This could be harder than removing all the antennas as when they are doing work in the backyard I normally keep him in the basement or when they are doing work in the house I just let him stay in the backyard. This could a bit harder as this time they will be in the backyard and the basement at the same time… Just to refresh your memory… “Toby” is my 95 LB German Shepherd and his main purpose in life is to protect HIS family and His house… and he does it quite well…
Looks like he will be stuck in the bedroom for little while. As long as he stays off my side of the bed…I can’t see the work taking more than 2 or 3 hours for the windows and I hope I will be lucky enough for the roof to be done at the same time…
But this means that all the antennas and accessories must be removed. I am allowed to put it back up after with the normal rules of …Nothing permanantly attached to the building itself…. nothing but wire over roof height and nothing going outside of my own back yard. In the past once the leaves show up on the trees they have not complained about a thin long wire that follows the tree line but once the leaves depart in the fall the wire reverts back to within my property lines again…
So on Easter Monday I get to remove the 6m rotatable dipole, the 2m loop, the 2m 1/4 wave APRS/Packet antenna, the dual band J pole and the 60 foot long wire along with over 80 feet of counterpoises. In addition to this the 20 foot mast that holds the 2m loop and the 6m dipole will be coming down and the 12 foot mast that hold the j pole will be coming down as well…
Once this has been done and the contractors finished with my back yard then I get to figure out how to string new coax lines outside.. ( I hope that the new window will open) and then re install all of the antennas in time for the Ontario QSO Party which will be the following weekend….
To make matters slightly worse I have just accepted the position of Net Manager for the Ontario Phone Net which is a HF formal NTS Style net and I will not be able to participate till the antenna issue is resolved…
Just when most things were going well…. AW SHUCKS and GEE WHIZ…
However I have decided that I will be replacing the longwire with a stronger, more robust version of the W3EDP antenna and I am in the process of building it now. Once it is finished I will take it over and operate from the Museum Grounds which will allow me to test it out at the 100w setting along with participate in the 2009 Lightship/Lighthouse QSO Party which starts today and runs to the 19th of April…
Perhaps I can time it so Fridays and Saturdays session of the OPN can be accessed at 1600 Eastern in the afternoons… Starting Sunday the net moves back to its 1900 hour EDST timeframe for the summer months to go along with the changes is propagation. Not sure if I want to stretch out wire that late in the evening in April so I will have to see.
Once again I will mention that the antennas should be back up within two weeks and then all will be good again…
73bob
Tags: amateur radio, amateur radio antenna, Amateur Radio in the great outdoors, murphys law
