On 6/8/02, more work was done at the Clayton repeater
site...mostly work/upgrades to the antenna systems. The folks out at the site were
Steve KD4WIW, Jay KQ4MS, Reg W4REG, Ron K4JDR, and Dave WB4IUY. I took a
few pictures while up the tower, to give some of you a better feel for
what things look like at 200 feet above the ground, while standing on a piece
of Rohn 25 tower... Here are 10 photos for your enjoyment:
This is a shot looking down at the ground from about 190
feet. Notice KQ4MS's truck (rh side) and Ron K4JDR's truck (LH side). The white
antenna is used by the new K4JDR 444.150 pl 100hz repeater, and partially shared
by the W4RAL-4 145.01 packet node.
Here's a picture of the 147.39 repeater antenna mounted
on the top of the tower at 200'. Boy, the sky was nice and blue!
Here's a picture, taken through the tower, of the south
side of Clayton. Whew, the birds love this tower, check out the white stuff.
It was EVERYWHERE!
This picture is a bit farther south, shot through the
tower at a different angle. The vertical tubing in the picture is part of a
low-band 3-bay array that will soon be part of the 10 meter repeater's
receiver system. This should dramatically improve the repeaters ability to
receive weak signals on 29.520.
This picture is of the water tower at hwy 42 and
I-40's intersection...probably 10+ miles away. Visibility was pretty
darn good from up there!
Hey Ron!!!! Hehehehe....there's Ron K4JDR at the bottom
of the tower, looking up to help get the alignment correct of a bracket I was
working on.
Waaaaaaayyyyyyy down there are two motorcycles... They
are Steve KD4WIW and Dave WB4IUY's bikes. We rode those to the job. It was
such a nice day out, it was a shame to waste it by riding in a steel cage!!
Here's a picture shot across the western edge of
Clayton and towards Garner. Man, it's beautiful country to view from
up there!
Here, I'm looking back down at the tower crew. Wow,
they sure do look to be a loonnnggggggggg ways down there! Are they really
people, or just bugs??
This last picture is of the buildings in south Raleigh.
I screwed the telephoto lens on for this shot, to help you see them better.
The big towers on the left are channel 5 and others in the Aubern area.
After this work was done, the W4RAL-4 packet BBS node and
the 444.150 pl 100 UHF repeater were returned to service. We rode out motorcycles
(with KQ4MS in tow in his truck) over to Jimmy K4CMH's house to look at his
tower work (to be done), and finally on to WA4MJF's shack to climb the tower
and make an adjustment to the W4RAL-5 BPQ switch yagi. Twas a good
day for antenna work, indeed!
Dave WB4IUY
