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Antennas Here are some pictures of the current or recent antennas and towers:
Shortly after this picture was taken, the tower was taken down due to its age and replaced with another tower attached to the eaves of the house. The beam was replaced with a Cushcraft A4 that had been modified with two 40-meter add-on kits to make a 2 element beam on 40 meters. A Cushcraft D3W rotatable dipole for 30/17/12 was also added to the tower. To support the increased load, the CD-45 rotator was swapped with the HD-73 previously used for the satellite antennas. Unfortunately the SWR on the A4 was very high on 20 and 40 possibly indicating a problem with a trap. A couple months later this antenna was taken down and inspected. No obvious problems were found so a few connections were cleaned and it was put back up. By the time the job was finished it was too dark to take a picture but I got a picture the next morning. Modified Cushcraft A4 - January, 2008: Guy wires? I don't need no stinkin' guy wires. A storm came through that night with some strong winds so this is what was found the next morning. The brand new Cushcraft D3W rotatable dipole was only slightly damaged. The A4 may be salvageable with several replacement parts. The top section of the tower was repaired by cutting out a one foot section where it had bent and rejoining it with 2" diameter pipe that was just the right size to slip inside the tower tube. It is sturdy enough at a height of 30' so it was put back up with the TA-33jr and the D3W a couple months later. The next major project was the installation of a Wilson MT-61, 3-section tower similar to the US Tower MA-550.
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