It’s been one heckuva project, but the tower and beam are now up and running at WA2HOM, our club station at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. See the pictures below.
I’d like to thank everyone involved in this project: Roger, W8OMB, for donating the beam; Jack, WT8N, who really spearheaded the project; Jim, K8ELR; Ovide, K8EV; Rob, KD8PUC; and of course, all the museum people: Mel, the museum director; Dave, the old facilities manager; and Doug, the new facilities director.
As you can see from the photos below, we still have some work left to do. We’re going to be taking down the 30-ft. mast (in the foreground) and moving the dipoles back so that they hand from the tower. And, since we no longer need a 20m inverted vee, we’ll be disconnecting the 20m elements and attaching some 30m elements.
After raising the tower yesterday, Ovide and Jim made a couple of contacts, one on 15m phone and one on 20m phone. They report that both guys gave us 59 signal reports. What a change from the puny signal we used to have on 20m.
Tomorrow, we’re really going to be putting this antenna system to the test as we operate the MI QSO Party. We’ll be using the callsign W8CWN, which used to belong to Dr. Richard Crane, the U-M physicist who was a great science educator and built many of the early displays down at the museum. Listen for us, and give us a call if you hear us.
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