On Saturday 16 September the CTARC held an antenna work party, starting at 09h00.
Present were Rob / ZS1SA (club chairman), Noel / ZS1FW (clubhouse manager), Paul / ZS1S, Michael / ZS1MJT, Tony / ZS1TK, Lem / ZS1LEM and Nick / ZS1ZD. Richard / ZS1RIC joined us later on.
We winched down the main antenna mast and slid out the inner two coaxial sections, which were removed into the clubhouse and put on trestles. The rivets holding the troublesome guide rail that has weaked and parted from its base pole were drilled out and removed, and new, slightly larger holes tapped. Into these will be fastened new, stronger, flatter-headed pins that should hold that guide rail firmly in place in future.
While the mast was lowered, the winch and other portions of the assembly mechanism were given a fresh coat of Hammerite paint.
At the same time, the multi-band vertical antenna, which had developed a serious lurch in one direction following the big north-westerly gale of July 2017, was taken down again. Some of the tuning radials had been blown off in the storm (but fortunately preserved), and the remaining radials and top-loading capacity hat were removed and stored. Some of these will require straightening again. The main mast of that antenna will also need to be straightened again.
In addition to this Rob sorted out and priced a number of radio items - equipment, rigs, components, books and magazines - recently donated to the CTARC from a deceased estate. These will be on sale (for club funds) at the following clubhouse meeting on 23 September, and will be advertised in Swopshop, on the blogspot and int Ragchew.
Photos of the event are [here].
