When I think back on all the stupid things I have done when I was younger and into the cb radio back in the late 70s, boy was I dumb. I remember installing a 1\2 wave ground plane antenna on my mothers roof to a mast that was wall mounted. I was holding 2 foot of the antenna, standing on the edge of the roof and installing it on the wall mounted mast. To top it off it was in a snow storm. Try holding that in the cold snowy wind. Yes I managed to do it and the swr was good. I used that antenna until I bought a star-duster cb antenna.
This was my next brilliant move in the land of cb radio. I used some fence rails to put it up about 40 feet in the air. I had the mast was mounted to the garage. I had a boat winch set up with cable, so I could lay it over on the roof. My mistake, was that I used guy wire for the cable. I started to lay it over and then the weight took over. That mast came sailing down and the star-duster antenna crashed into the roof and landed on the driveway. All I could do was look at that poor twisted and bent antenna and say shi@#$%*.
Then cam e my next adventure in cb radio. I bought a 40 foot tower and cemented into the ground with a tilt over system. I also had this wall mounted to the garage and used a number of guy wires as well. This would lay right over and onto the roof. I had a friend tie a rope to it and to his pick up truck. The back yard was right at the schools playground field. The tower laid over perfectly and I installed a PDL II Beam antenna on it. One time as I was on the roof , my friend was lowering the tower and I stood too close to the tower. A bolt or something caught my shirt and ripped it off my back. I did pay my younger brother 5 dollars to climb the tower and adjust it, so it pointed north.
Well I have my own house and I don't do those crazy things as I have gotten older. I am much more careful with my ham radio antennas and gear. I much prefer to do everything from the ground.
No comments:
Post a Comment