Spring is Coming

The title is an unapologetic riff on the "Game of Thrones" tag line: winter is coming. It's appropriate. With our cold and snowy winters, most tower and antenna work is halted for several months. Winter is a time to operate and work on indoor projects. As the snow thaws and the temperature rises in early spring, there is a looming sense of dread despite the more clement weather.

Sure, spring and summer are glorious times, which I love, but that's not all. The station develops problems during the harsh winter months when it's too cold to deal with them. The list of new projects also grows. Springtime signals a rapid transition from relaxation to frenetic activity. Insects wake up and hunt for victims. There are disease-carrying ticks, black flies (the kamikaze pilots of the insect world), and the slower moving but voracious mosquitos. They must be braved while working down the long to-do list.

My lawn is very large and there is much to be done in the spring before the grass (and weeds) begin their growth spurt. That alone will consume many days and it all has to be done in April. What I can't complete will have to be deferred to October when the growing season comes to an end.

In May the hay starts its serious growth and I am largely kept out of the fields and away from major tower projects. The growing hay is difficult to work in and there is a limit to how much of it I can mow to make room for that work. The hay is also where ticks lurk and wait for passing deer and careless hams. 

Hay season from late May to early August is prime sporadic E season. I spend some of that time to chase DX on 6 meters. On days when the band is closed I am often found in my workshop building antennas and other contraptions, or out cycling or other summer activities. Late summer and autumn is the second and longer period for tower and antenna work.

A fox almost blundered into me while I standing on the rock wall while working on the overhead cable run. I heard noise in the leaf litter, looked down and it looked up. I'm not sure which of us was more startled. The fox bolted. It looked back a few times as it went, wondering what I'd do. I simply shrugged and got back to work.

We had an ice storm a week ago. A large tree limb fell, luckily away from the overhead cables. This is another peril of spring: lots of precipitation when the temperature hovers near 0° C. Antenna damage was minor (one of the Beverages) and quickly repaired. Unlike in other storms, the vulnerable rural distribution system survived and we had no power outage at all. The storm damage and power failures were worse elsewhere.

By the time the fox arrived the fallen tree had been removed. I was on the wall finishing the work on the overhead cable supports. It was well supported when winter swept in so there was no urgency. This week I finally cleared away the old supports. The new post gingerly winched out of the ground. It had been pushed down 6" by cable tension. It must have slipped off the wood plank without my noticing.

With the winch and a second steel post, I lifted and set it on the steel pin and bolted it for lateral support. I couldn't do it in the winter so the old post occupied the support frame. The job took a day and a half, which is 3 times what I estimated. There were complications due to the need to support the cables during the work.

Winter took its toll on a couple of antennas. The 160 meter vertical developed an intermittent during high power transmissions. Operating on 160 meters without high power pretty well kept me off the band for a few weeks. All I could do in the cold was to quickly test the many mechanical connections, twice. This turned an intermittent problem into a permanent outage. Once the weather warmed up I did a more thorough investigation.

It turned out to be a wire that was squeezed out from between a pair of washers and was barely contacting the capacitors of the gamma match. As noted at the time, the voltage at the gamma capacitor is very high and prone to arcing. It was easy to fix once found.

The problem with the 80 meter yagi could not be found at all in the cold weather since several key connection points to the switching system and radials were encased in ice at the base of the driven element (tower). That has all thawed during this week's unusually warm weather. I will be out there in the coming days to work on it. I am hopeful that it is something simple.

During the cold of winter, tower jobs are limited to those that don't require fine work. Climbing in winter isn't the problem, it's having to take my gloves off to fiddle with hardware and wires. Once your fingers are chilled they don't warm up too quickly and it's cumbersome to continue work and then climb down with stiff and partially numb fingers.

In the coming days and weeks there are several jobs on my list that I will attend to. Others are less urgent.

• Inspect towers, antennas, wires and mechanical fixtures; this is a semi-annual chore
• Inspect and make temporary repairs to the mast coupling system to the upside down prop pitch motor rotator for the 15 and 20 meter stacks; I'll have to replace it eventually but hopefully not this year
• Complete modifications to the pulley system driving the direction pot for the same prop pitch motor; despite the high tension there is still occasional slippage that requires re-zeroing the indicator
• Build, install and test new capacitance hats on the driven element of the 3-element 40 meter yagi; if they do well I hope to undertake the far more difficult job of replacing the hats on the reflector and director elements (see early construction phase above)
  
• Ground all the Beverages in preparation for lightning season; this will not be an inconvenience since I must roll up the radials of the 160 meter vertical in preparation for the summer haying
• Find and install better straps that bind the mass of cables to the overhead cable run; the new rubber straps I installed in the fall rapidly deteriorated, while the far older ones are fine: quality matters (see below right)
  

With all of these jobs, yard work and other activities there has been little time for operating. As I write these words, I've made less than 10 contacts this month! I usually monitor 6 meters (50.313 MHz) when I'm busy elsewhere, but even that has been pretty quiet due to the low solar flux. We are in the doldrums between March equinox-enhanced north-south propagation and the start of sporadic E season a few weeks hence.

There are also a growing number of requests from friends to help out with their tower work. That doesn't happen as often as it did years ago with elderly hams holding fast with what they have and not undertaking new projects. I help out where I can. Others have also been making their lists in preparation for spring warmth and they reach out to me.

With all of the maintenance work to be done and the many new projects in my 2023 plan I expect to stay busy this year. If you enjoy QSO parties, please come out for the Ontario QSO Party on April 15 and 16. I will again be hosting one of the bonus stations so my presence in the contest is guaranteed.