Siting the Towers and Antennas

With 50 acres of land you might think that I have no constraints on where I place towers. Of the 50 acres, a few are allocated to the house and immediate yard area, 20 are being tilled for hay, and the rest are a mix of forest, bush and swamp.Yet there are always constraints beyond the common one of lot boundaries.

Let's look at the constraints I am most concerned with.

• Houses: As much as possible you want to maximize the distance from RFI emitters and receivers and to protect against damage or injury should a tower or antenna fall down. In an urban environment this can be difficult. A rural setting opens more options, though limited by the next criterion.
• Length of transmission lines and control cables: Long conductor lengths are expensive and can incur unacceptable loss. The shorter the better, unless you are working with a large budget.
• Trees, fences, utilities and other barriers: Much grief can be avoided by siting towers and guy anchors out in the open. The closer they come to roads, utilities and trees the greater the risk of accidents. Trees can be deceptive. Their roots can grow out sideways, especially over rocky ground, and a small tree will grow into a threatening giant. Obstacles will also impede the raising and lowering of all but the smallest antennas, and may require a tram from a more distant patch of open ground. And as they say, call before you dig. Do you know where all your utilities, drainage pipes et cetera are buried?
• Tillage: In a rural setting the conversion of perfectly good land from crops to antennas can be scandalous in the neighbourhood. In some jurisdictions it can even be illegal. If you are in this situation be very careful. For example, the tillable land on my property (~20 acres) is hayed by a local farmer. I want to site and orient the towers in a manner to maximize his access to the land. They will appreciate the gesture.
• Rock: In this part of the world rock is a frequent excavation impediment. At my previous house my 1985 tower requires breaking through 3' of shale to achieve the required depth. The same had to be done when I built a new house in 1992. Excavation equipment to break rock is expensive. At my new QTH the rock is managable by hand digging for the self-supporting tower, but that was due to careful site planning: I chose a location with perhaps 2' of well-settled soil above the natural grade. Avoid rock if you can because it can be difficult and expensive to remove.
• Interaction: Even if you never operate on more than one band at a time interaction between antennas is important. The primary ones are damage to inactive receivers and pattern distortion due to mutual coupling. For the SO2R or multi-op contester, or even a fervent DXer simultaneously working two pile-ups, far less interaction can be detrimental.

As you can see there is much to consider. While it is a lot to think through the benefits justify the effort. Why go to all the effort of purchasing a property and then be cavalier planning the placement of towers and antennas? The effort is worth it, even if you cannot achieve an ideal result.

Alternative site plans

Site planning

Even for small stations some advance planning is helpful. It is something I undertook at my previous station when i decided to expand my capabilities. The exercise can pay dividends by avoiding future conflicts and expense. Think carefully about your interests, ambitions and what you might want to tackle in the future.

Draw the layout of your proposed antenna farm, including utilities and adjacent buildings, and even significant distant topographic features.

Alternatively use a satellite view of the area from a service such as Google Maps, as seen above for my property. Import it into one of the many suitable applications that allow you to draw on top of it. I've used Microsoft Powerpoint and Open Office Impress. Precision isn't necessary so these applications are suitable and easy to use.

Initial configuration

Once you stick a shovel in the ground you have made a choice that will constrain your future choices. Choose carefully. I have considered the alternatives and I have put a shovel into the ground. Several shovel, in fact.

The following site plan is the one I am working with. Notice that it is a satellite view of the area around the house with annotations added. I find this approach easier than the alternative of a drawing. Notice that the house is 100 meters the road. Plowing that long driveway in winter will not be fun. Yet this is a great arrangement for antennas because I can maximize the land area within a given radius of the shack.

I'll describe my thoughts on why this configuration is acceptable in the context of my constraints and objectives. The meaning and design of the annotations will also be explained.

The tower annotations are with respect to the physical layout. For self-supporting towers I use a simple yellow circle, for guyed towers the vertices of the triangle are the guy anchors, and for vertical arrays it is the maximum extent or either radials or guys. On both guyed towers I placed a scaled image of a full-size 3 element 40 meter yagi to help with mental imagery.

The scale requires an explanation. Google supplies a scale in the lower right corner. But that is too small to use and it is also inconveniently located. Instead I transformed the scale to the image on my computer screen. I then created several measuring rods in the drawing application that I can paste onto the image, then move and rotate them. You might prefer a more rigourous approach that is not dependent on my screen and application window!

The location of the Trylon self-supporting tower is constrained by the location of the house, septic system, trees and future garage (purple square). This will be first tower to go up, and its construction is underway as of this writing. As previously mentioned, I'm under the gun to get the concrete poured before work on the garage begins. This tower will initially support a large tri-band yagi and 6 meter yagi. It may also be shunt loaded for 80 meters and perhaps 160 until 2017.

The LR20 has been surveyed on the land east of the house as shown on the plan. Excavation is planned for November. I chose the location to minimize visibility from the road, land removed from hay production and distance from the house. Its orientation is not ideal for climbing and, especially, side mounting of yagis. I can work around these minor issues. Over the winter it is unlikely to hold more than inverted vees and a one or two fixed yagi. Next year I plan to raise 40 meter and 20 meter yagis of modest size, or larger if I have the time.

There is provision in the plan for a similar size guyed tower to the south of the house. If I build it one tower will be for 40 and 10 and the other for 20 and 15. This is a common arrangement for contesters since it minimizes interaction among yagis on the same tower by avoiding harmonically related bands and maximizes diversity. If contests are not your passion the need for two tall towers is of less value.

Unfortunately when pointed to Europe the south tower may exacerbate interference with antennas on the east tower. This will have to be addressed with aggressive filtering, and in truth would likely be required in any case.

In the north field I have reserved space for an 80 meter vertical yagi per the design in an earlier article. Alternatively I would put up a 4-square. Spacing from the other towers is sufficient to avoid serious pattern degradation when pointing southeast should any of the towers exhibit a resonance on 80. However there will be no array or even a vertical for 80 and 160 this year.

With respect to noise I have initially avoided placing antennas west of the house. The electrical distribution line is parallel to the road using an easement on my property. If you look closely you'll see the shadows cast by the poles. It is about 70 meters from the house. Antennas would be closer than that.

Notice the placement of measuring sticks to help visualize distances. Then there are the ones further to the east that have a different purpose. These are prospective 100+ meter long Beverages for 80 and 160 reception. Alternatively a 4-square or 8-square circular array could be placed in the wild field to the northeast. Since Beverages are simple and cheap they are more likely to be installed in the near term, and possibly remain my receive antennas of choice.

Receiving antennas are a good choice for the otherwise useless forest and swamp at the eastern extreme of my property. It is not by chance that this area is furthest from power lines and neighbours's houses, and looks towards Europe; it is one of the attractions of the property that caught my eye. I have already been pricing 150 to 200 meter runs of RG6 and control cable. I've also learned to construct small transformers and common mode chokes suitable for 160 and 80 meters.

2017 and beyond

My immediate need is to get towers planted before winter and put up antennas that will get me through the winter and next spring. Starting in 2017 I will begin my long term antenna plan. At this point I don't know how far I'll go, and indeed I prefer to give myself latitude to experiment rather than stick with any fixed ideas.

The site plan must accommodate my particular interests. I believe I've done that. Although now that towers are being planted and their placement constrains my future choices it is beneficial in that I don't have to waste valuable time considering too many possibilities. Or, what we used to called in my business life: analysis paralysis.

My objectives for 2017 include the following, in no particular order:

• 3-element 40 meter yagi. Which design I will select remains an open question. The antenna will go at the top of the LR20 tower and turned with a prop pitch motor/rotator.
• Side mount the XM240 2-element 40 meter yagi on the LR20, rotatable with or without a swing arm to cover the US.
• 80 meter vertical yagi array, including 160 meter vertical.
• Mono-band yagis for 20 and 15 meters, side mounted on the LR20.
• Beverage antennas to cover critical directions, primarily for 160 meters but also to supplement the receive directivity of the 80 meter vertical yagi.
• Tri-band yagis for the Trylon (TH7) and LR20 (TH6, fixed). These are in stock, along with most of the rotators I'll need. One rotatable tri-bander or mono-bander will be mounted above the 40 meter yagi at extreme height.
• 6 meter yagi on the Trylon.
• Heliax for all the long runs

Over this winter, once tower and antenna work must cease, I will begin preparatory work on some of these antennas. There is also work to be done building the shack and automation for rig control and antenna switching.

I also have a stretch objective to raise that second guyed tower late in the season. That event depends on many things, and I may not even want it then or ever. But I expect I will do it no later than 2018. Once built the antennas will be rearranged as I described earlier, with one tower for 40 and 10 and the second for 15 and 20. Large yagis for the high bands will be built or purchased for these towers. Progress of the solar cycle will determine priorities.

Antenna experimentation would benefit from an additional small free-standing tower so that the main towers and antennas don't need to be disturbed. However that may be too much for next year. 

Missing the contests

It feels odd to be writing blog posts while the CQ WW SSB contest is underway. In a way all this typing and thinking makes that lack sting a little less. It is also a welcome break from the hard physical labour of digging. I'll have more to say about digging tower holes later.

Welcome to FN24br

Getting back online after the move was no easy feat. Since I decided to go entirely wireless at the new QTH I was solely reliant on my cell phone. Unfortunately it is old and does not support the newer service bands, and I was roaming on another network. You don't realize how dependent we are on modern communication services until they are missing or unreliable. Amateur radio is not a substitute for ordinary personal and commercial use.

The upshot is that getting internet service arranged and installed took a week longer than expected. Being disconnected had the advantage of keeping me focussed on completing the move and starting on the new station.

One odd problem that occurred with the move had to do with my license and station location. Industry Canada (who regulate amateur radio) found it difficult to update my record in their database. It turns out that when I moved from VE4 to VE3 in 1979 a new record was created rather than updating the one that existed. This persisted when their IT systems evolved and upgrade, and made the problem more interesting. After verifying that I was who I said I was the database was corrected and they issued me a new certificate.

I started simply at the new QTH. With no barriers in the way of getting back on the air, other than the lack of a tower, I unpacked my multi-band inverted vee and hoisted it up a temporary mast. The mast is the same one I used at the top of my bracketed tower. It already has the pulley attached.

A couple of long u-bolts secure the mast to the decayed cedar railing of the loft balcony. The balcony will be replaced next year so I have no concerns about damaging it further. The inverted vee apex is only 9 meters high and the ends, tied to two of the numerous trees around the yard, are about half that height. It isn't much but it works, surely better than how I returned to the hobby in 2013.

A 15 meter length of RG213 connected the FT950 temporarily located in the loft bedroom. No holes were drilled. The rotting weatherstripping and sill of the balcony door allowed just enough room for this thick cable to squeeze through (the door is also slated for replacement).

DX contacts soon followed. The only ones of note were S9YY on 30 and 40 meters and TL0A on 17. That getting through wasn't easy is good since it allows me to hone my pile-up skills.

Towers are being sited and construction has begun. I'll get into the details in a future article. For now I'll present a Google satellite view of the area of my 50 acre property that is most germane to radio use. That circle you see is an attractive stone wall lined with birch trees inside half its circumference. The fields beyond are tilled for hay by a local farmer, who I have yet to meet. Towers will reduce the tillable acreage a small amount.

A self-supporting Trylon is going up a short distance to the northeast of the house, behind the location of the future garage. I need to plant the tower before the garage excavation is begun so the concrete truck can roll up to the tower base. Trust me, you do not want to move 6 yd³ of concrete in wheelbarrows (~50 heavily-laden trips). Concrete pumps are an expensive alternative.

The LR20 150' (43 meter) tower will be placed directly east of the house and yard. I still do not know if I'll have time to get that tower planted before ground and air conditions are too cold to proceed. There are 4 excavations and reinforced concrete work for the tower, and potentially long wheelbarrow trips to place ~5 yd³ of concrete.

I did get a commercial quote to put up the tower (all labour, equipment and materials) and even with an "amateur" discount it is a quite expensive $20,000+. For some amateurs this is acceptable. Others do some of the work themselves and bring in professionals for the rest. That can be far more economical if you have the time, skills and body strength. I plan to do as much as possible myself, not excluding 100% of the project. For me the planning and execution of tower project of this size is a very interesting opportunity to learn and put all of my experience to the test. However I have been getting advice from professionals, both local and distant.

I close for now with a picture of some of the denizens of this large 50 acre property. There are apple trees, towering maples (and evidence of a century old sugar bush camp), animals and plenty of open space. It is very peaceful if a little isolated. There is lots of space to store antennas, towers and related material.

For amateur radio it has many attractions. The house though it needs extensive renovation is getting high marks from the many visitors that have passed through. Mixing house construction with tower work is difficult enough without the financial and legal glitches that have plagued both ends of the real estate transaction. All is clear now bar the hard work.

My next blog posts will get into siting the antenna farm and planting towers. There is a lot of excavation work ahead before the ground freezes. Regrettably I will not have a station for this weekend's CQ WW SSB contest, so I will not be competing for SOAB QRP #1 for a third year running.

Two Tons of Steel, and Administrivia

I've accumulated lots of stuff over the decades. Not just amateur radio stuff, of course. I am amazed how much stuff there is in my house to be moved. With my now very imminent move this has become a small nightmare. I've given or discarded 40+ years of QST and other ham magazines, sold a few household appliances I'll no longer need, and I have a list of more things to sell after I am settled in my new QTH.

Every one to two days over the past 2 weeks I transported a carload of fragile and odd-shaped stuff in my car. Yes, this included every bit of amateur radio gear I own, of which there is a lot. I even moved the 2 kilowatt power supply I built over 25 years ago for a set of amplifiers I never did get around to building. The power supply works great though, including its regulated 300 VDC screen supply for tetrodes.

The big stuff is another matter. I now have 4 towers, 2,000' of Heliax, 3 tri-band yagis, several rotators (including two prop pitch motors), a 2-element 40 meter yagi, assorted VHF yagi, over 100' of steel mast, and much much more. Almost none of it fits in a car. So I turned elsewhere for help.

One of my neighbours own a landscaping business. One evening a couple of weeks ago he showed up with a 5-ton truck and trailer, a few of his sons, his wife and several employees. Even with so many hands it was a hard job to load the towers, masts and related paraphernalia.

Two of the guys and I took care of the unloading at the new QTH. It sufficed, just barely; it was a tough job. I paid for everything of course, though at a price point better than I could otherwise accomplish.

I remember that while standing on top of the load on top of the truck (feeding sections to the guys below) close to midnight my phone rang. It was a fellow ham wondering how the move was going. So I told him!

300' and 2 tons of towers and masts at the new QTH in FN24

This has been unbelievably difficult work. Yet I'm not done. The antennas and Heliax would have to wait for another truck, which is pending as I write these words. Of the big antennas all but two of the tri-banders were knocked down to small lengths and transported in my car.

As if all this weren't enough I have more tower on order. There are only 6 weeks left to plant towers in the ground, before the risk of frost in the ground puts an end to concrete work for the winter. Towers and antennas work can continue in the cold, if I am so inclined.

Going dark, for a while

The next part of the move is more serious and will occupy me for the next week. This means no new blog post, no moderation of comments, no email and no phone calls. Aside from being busy there is as yet no internet or phone service at the new QTH.

If the blog and I seem unresponsive you'll know why.

Changes to contact info

A number of correspondents have email and phone contact information that as of now are invalid. There will no forwarding or other notification beyond this note.

Email should be sent to my call sign at rac.ca or arrl.net and no other. When I eventually reply you'll have the new direct email address. My phone number will be disclosed as necessary following email contact.

See you soon.

Two Approaches to Penalizing Contest Log Errors

The title of this article of long since it can take some description to explain a simple dilemma. Which is who to penalize when one operator in a contest QSO makes a mistake? Sounds simple, yet therein lies an interesting dilemma.

I was forcefully reminded of this when I recently received my log report (UBN) for the RDXC CW 2015, and by internet discussions of some frustrated contesters. For those who do not enter contests -- or at least do not contest very seriously -- this may be no more than a curiosity. Dedicated contesters have good reason to care.

First, a brief explanation of the two penalty schemes.

A) Penalize the operator who makes a mistake

Let's say I call and work XX9YY. I log the call and the sent exchange. The exchange is contest specific. It can as simple as a report and a zone such as in CQ WW. More complex are exchanges with serial numbers. Far more complex is the exchange in ARRL Sweepstakes, or the QTC system in WAE.

The chance for errors is greater with more complex exchanges yet even simple exchanges can create many errors by operators who become careless. For example, not really listening and just letting the logging software fill the log fields.

So if you are a K5 operating in California and I log zone 4 instead of the zone 3 you sent I see my score reduced by the erasure of the QSO and a further penalty. If I copy your call sign wrong you may never know because in S&P operating (typically for QRP contesters like myself) it is common practice not to send the other station's call. If I don't send it he can't correct my error.

That's really all there is to it. I get the penalty while the other operator in the QSO is not, assuming that he copied my call and exchange correctly.

B) Penalize both operators when one (or both) makes a mistake

In contests like RDXC it is the responsibility of both operators to correctly copy the sent call and exchange and to ensure that the other operator correctly copied their sent call sign and exchange. If either operator makes an error the QSO points are erased for both operators. A further penalty may be assessed.

It is therefore incumbent on all contest participants to transmit a clean signal and send the call sign and exchange in a manner to ensure they are correctly logged by the other operator. Ideally this results in better operating practice by everyone. Although it can also slow rates it does so for everyone.

Regrettably the ideal is not consistently achieved in practice.

Rules modify operator behaviour

Rules can improve operator behaviour but cannot entirely eliminate common problems. They can even cause new problems, perhaps ones that are unanticipated by the contest sponsors. Competitive operators want to win and will exploit the rules to maximize their results, and do so while staying within the rules. There are always ways to find advantages despite the intent of any rules.

The common theme is twofold for the competitive operator:

1. Maximize points
2. Minimize penalties

Let's look deeper at these imperatives in the context of both penalty regimes, focussing on the operator behaviours they induce. Both have pros and cons.

The majority of contests use scheme A. This engenders poor operating behaviour by a relatively small number of big guns and those offering a rare multiplier. They see every incentive to send quickly and loudly to maximize rate when running with little regard to the other operator's attempt to log the QSO accurately. After all, if the caller makes an error they are the one penalized, not the running station. Thus we see the following from some:

• Very fast CW speed (35+ wpm), or fast talking on SSB
• Infrequent identifying
• Not correcting obvious errors in the other station's copying of their call or exchange
• Distorted transmission: over-modulation or compression, chopped code elements, etc.

Some contest sponsors are taking steps against these poor behaviours, though for the most part the perpetrators get away with it. My opinion is that this is unethical operating since it often negatively impacts the score of other contest participants. Pursuit of a high score is not an acceptable excuse.

With scheme B the dynamic changes, and therefore the behaviour of contest participants. Speeds slow and identification becomes more frequent. There is an added incentive to elicit confirmation of correct copying. Distortion only slows the QSO so gain controls get dialled down.

So far so good. However it is not all roses. When doubt creeps into an operator's thoughts about whether the other station did indeed copy everything correctly there is a chance, sometimes a good chance, that they'll silently wipe the QSO. When that happens the other unsuspecting operator receives an NIL penalty (not in log). The one wiping the QSO loses the points but avoid the risk of a penalty.

All it takes is sufficient doubt (a subjective choice) to result in penalties for other participants. Unlike in scheme A this is not a matter of unethical operating, merely a fear of penalties. Whether that fear is rational is difficult to say.

Which is better?

I have no firm view on this matter. Any rule has its loopholes and downsides. The clever operator will find them and then modify their behaviour for maximum advantage. The unethical operator will only focus on their advantage and not the impact their choices have on other contest participants.

I was at first favourably disposed toward scheme B when I first learned about it. I am less sure now that I've experienced its problems. Nevertheless it is an interesting experiment that is worth wider adoption to see how it plays out in larger contests. Since tradition has great momentum I don't expect this to happen any time soon.

I suspect that one's opinion correlates well with primary operating style: run vs. S & P. Self interest is a powerful motivator. Even my own view may change as I transition from QRP to QRO contesting, and therefore more running.

Unbending Bent Tubes

When disaster strikes we often find ourselves with a pile of scrap aluminum and steel. After shedding a tear or two it is time to dive into the scrap heap and decide what can be salvaged and what must be trucked away for disposal or recycling.

A word about risk

Of course we want to reuse as much as possible, it just isn't always wise. In these matters I find it helpful to reflect on the old cliche: "if you have to ask the question...replace it." Unfortunately the less you know the more doubts you will have. Or if you thrive on risk you simply skip the question phase and jump into salvaging almost everything while prudence looks on in horror.

A little knowledge combined with a little ingenuity is perhaps best: you strive for economy yet know that there are important limits to what can be salvaged. Aluminum tubing can be expensive and is a prime candidate when an antenna turns into scrap.

The danger is that aluminum and its alloys fatigue easily when bent. Every bend weakens the metal, including the bend to return it to its original shape. Tempered alloys, including those used in aluminum tubing, weaken even more when bent. You must think very carefully whether the risk is worth it.

The general rule I use with aluminum tubing is to try and save a tube with a gradual curve and discard one with a visible kink, especially a kink that changes the cross-section from a circle to any other shape, be it an ellipse or something more extreme. The application also matters: a tube that is at the end of a yagi element or light duty boom mostly only supports itself and is more amenable to rescue.

Consider the following tube:

This is a 1.5" O.D. tempered aluminum alloy tube (most likely 6061-T6) with a 0.058" wall that telescopes with similar tubing in ⅛" steps. It comes from the boom of my old A50-6 yagi that I plan to resurrect in modern form. The bend dates to when the temporary wire antenna mast of which it was a part collapsed.

In my judgment this tube is a good candidate for saving. Even if only for the practice it is worth making an experiment of it. The replacement cost is small if the straightening attempt fails.

Tough tube

Aluminum alloy tubing of this diameter is surprisingly tough. Try to bend it over your knee and it's your knee that is more likely to bend. Some casual attempts to straighten it soon after the disaster went nowhere so I cast it aside for the time being.

When I recently took down my towers I recognized an opportunity. The 1.5" schedule 40 steel pipe coupled to the frame of the house (used as a tower guy anchor) looked perfect for what I had in mind. There are two important reasons. First, the pipe was effectively an immovable object for the force I would need to apply. Second, the I.D. of the pipe is 1.61" (the 1.5" designation is a nominal figure) into which the tube would slide in nicely and largely conform to the shape of the tube.

The second point is worth some elaboration. To straighten the tube it is necessary to apply a force greater than the tube's yield strength. Unless the tube is secured against a similarly curved surface there will be stress risers that will result in kinking or even collapse. The 1.61" I.D. is in a way even better than 1.5" I.D. since it allows a portion of the curved section of tube to be firmly couple to the pipe. That is, slide it into the pipe until you encounter resistance.

Snipe

We are not quite ready to proceed to bending. We need a way to apply the right force at the right place. Let's look at a tool for helping with that task: the snipe.

The bending force must be applied close to where the tube is secured to the pipe so that we can ensure that the only point that yields is in the vicinity of that coupling point. If we grab the tube by its end, for maximum leverage, the result will be unpredictable, and likely destructive. Yet if we hold the tube closer to the coupling point we almost certainly don't have the required body strength.

Pipe snipe

What we need is a snipe. Most often it takes the form of a long steel pipe that is placed over the handle of a tool to multiply leverage. Too often a snipe is used inappropriately (easy to do) resulting in a broken tool, broken machinery or, worse, a broken body. The approach we are going to take is more moderate and will permit good control of the force.

My snipe is another 1.5" schedule 40 steel pipe. It is long enough for the required leverage yet no so long that damage is easy to inflict on the tube. As with the fixed pipe it has a shape that reduced the risk of stress risers.

Gauging the force being applied is not obvious. If you push too hard you will feel the tube bend. You don't want that since it invariably means you've applied too much force and probably damaged the tube. If you are too careful the tube will not bend at all.

Experimentation with increasing amounts of force is required. It is necessary to inspect the tube after each push, which though tedious is mandatory.

Inspect the tube carefully: the bending will occur in the exposed area between the two pipes. Keep the pipes separated by about 6" so that the stress is distributed in a way to straighten several inches of tube at a time. Several bending actions will be required. Be sure to push exactly against the curvature. Align the tube so that the curve is exactly vertical or horizontal so that you can more easily judge the direction of applied force.

Almost straight

Start from one end of the bend and work gradually toward the other. Slide the tube further into the fixed pipe as each bend is accomplished. Check carefully after each bend to make sure the tube is straightened over that portion of the tube. When you believe you're done put a straight edge on all sides of the tube to confirm that you were successful. You'll have to decide how exact is sufficient to your use of the tube.

Almost straight

When I was done I inserted the tube back into the boom. The tube was straight but the boom was not!

I hadn't noticed before that the next telescoping tube (1.625" O.D.) also had a bend, although it is much less than that in the end tube. That will require a different setup since it will not fit the steel pipe I have on hand.

For the moment that is inconvenient so it must await a future opportunity. This is not something to rush into since use of the wrong size pipes can wreck the tube.

Final words

Bending aluminum tubes in the manner I described is risky but can be worth the attempt if the damage is within reason, as I described earlier in the article. In this case the tube is inexpensive so I was prepared to take a risk knowing I could buy a new one if I damaged it further.

For tubes in more structurally critical applications I would advise you to be safe, skip the experiment and buy a new tube. The same advice applies if you simply cannot be certain that it is safe to straighten the tube.

Then there's steel. That is a topic worth its own article. I have one planned on that subject focussing on damaged towers.

Land Hunting

Canada is the world's second largest country by land area with a middling population. This makes for a low population density. Visitors from Europe and east Asia in particular are often attracted to and amazed by the wide open spaces we have. It can be fun to experience their observations firsthand. If your interest is in the great outdoors the vast spaces and wilderness are an undeniable attraction.

When you live here the experience is different. Because we're so spread out the cost of travel and transportation is a consideration, and the taxes to pay for and maintain infrastructure such as electrical transmission lines and roads. Not to mention the rapid wear on that infrastructure from our extreme weather.

For hams with dreams of antenna farms the opportunities for acquiring land are good. That must be tempered by availability of utilities and roads and proximity to services and communities. If you are not retired be prepared for long commutes, or use the internet to work remotely if you can. The simple act of shopping for groceries can be a challenge.

As I reiterated at the beginning of this year I have aspirations for an antenna farm now that my enthusiasm for the hobby and contests has been rekindled. I am on the edge of retirement and what little work I do is short term consulting. I am free to move. As intimated in my previous article I am exercising that freedom.

Before I talk about the new property let's back up a few months to when I hired a realtor and they began to search out properties that met my criteria. Realtors can only help so much since this kind of hunt is typically far outside their experience and outside the search features of the listing services. Be prepared to take an active role in winnowing the choices they present you. Expect to spend time finding candidates yourself, which you then submit to the realtor so they can research them further.

The hunt was fraught with many challenges. In this article I'll describe some important ones that I encountered, both to entertain you and to provide food for thought should you contemplate doing something similar. Leave yourself lots of time to shop around. Expect frustration along the way. After endless searching out and visiting promising properties I began to worry that I'd never succeed, or that I'd have to settle for second best, or even worse.

Regulations

Canada is a first-world country with all the government, laws and regulations that go along with that. There really is no escape; you cannot simply buy some land in an isolated area and start erecting towers. Well, you can but sooner or later you will be caught and come to grief. Those in authority take their responsibilities seriously and will come after you, because if they don't they will come to grief for failing in their duties.

The first problem is that of cities. Many provincial governments in Canada have over the past decades aggressively pushed amalgamation of municipalities, both urban and rural, to reduce the cost of government and simplify oversight. It hasn't gone well in many cases, but I'll skip over that subject because...politics.

What it has done is created cities of enormous land area, incorporating large rural municipalities. Since the populations of these forced marriages are majority urban the city councils tend to apply city rules to the rural areas. That this causes many absurdities has slowed the trend very little.

For me that meant escaping Ottawa. That is difficult since the city has grown so large in area: ~80 km east-west and ~50 km north-south. There is lots of suitable rural property within the Ottawa boundaries but with difficult rules regarding towers I must look further out.

All municipalities, urban and rural, have permitting requirements, though they are often far less strict in rural areas with low population density. I know many hams in rural areas that are simply told to go ahead without a permit. But not always. Make appropriate inquiries before breaking ground.

On the federal level one must get approval for especially tall towers, in particular over 30 meters, with Transport Canada and NavCan. These are for aircraft safety. In most cases they simply add your tower to navigation charts and thank you for taking the time to let them know. However if you are near an airfield, even a small one, or if you exceed 60 meters height expect some challenges.

Suitable house and suitable land

One of the great challenges in the land hunt is to find a property that is both suitable to both ham radio and for living. This is no less true if you are alone than if you have a family. This difficulty is not too surprising since getting either one right is a challenge, so passing both sets of criteria with one property is less probable.

Here are some of the solutions of hams I have known:

• Purchase the land and build the house to your spec, including radio needs.
• If the land is good but not the house, renovate the house, perhaps extensively.
• Use the property only for ham radio while living elsewhere. The station is only used for contests or operated remotely.
• Accept less than ideal house or land and live with the consequences.

Since suitable property is almost always rural it is necessary to consider proximity to shopping, services, friends and work. In bad weather (winter storms) accessibility may be slow due to long driveways and road clearing. If power lines come down rural residents are the last to be restored.

In short, be prepared to compromise. You will also have to sell your family on the positive aspects of rural life.

Hidden hazards

Large rural lots can hide a lot of things you'd rather avoid. I always walk the property to look for things the sellers would rather you didn't know about. Here are a few things I've personally encountered:

• Garbage: Too often I've discovered garbage dumped somewhere. Their contents ranged from everyday household refuse to material from building demolition to business waste. Sometimes the garbage has been burned and left an ugly and toxic scar. People can be lazy and view their large properties as a way to dispose of material cheaply and easily and without paying for legal disposal.
• Skull and crossbones: One one property I found a large but low concrete structure with a heavily secured cover. On it could be found the words "poison gas". What the poison gas was I never did learn although my agent did ask. Many months later the property is still on the market, at a much lower price and a new listing agent.
• Easements: It is not uncommon for electrical lines to cross rural properties. Since population density is low this is a way to reduce infrastructure costs for the utility, and therefore (in theory at least) lower rates. In Canada and the US these rural lines are typically 14.4 kV (7.2 kV is more typical in cities). Be certain those lines do not impede your plans for towers and antennas. Also consider that easements allow utility workers to cross your property to get to those facilities, which might pose a hazard. Other easements are less common but can be significant problems. For example, pipelines.
• Outbuildings: Barns, stables, sheds and shelters are not uncommon on rural properties. Many of these used to be working farms, horse ranches or sites for the owner's business. Sometimes they add to the tax levy. These buildings have potential uses for hams. The problem in many cases is that they are little more than safety hazards that ought to be avoided or (better) removed. One such building I found garnered this answer to our query: "take a match to it and have a jolly bonfire!" Well, no. Try that and you'll have the authorities on top of you in no time at all. This is for good reason since these burns are dangerous and release toxic gasses and particulates into the air. Further, these buildings may contain septic systems and fuel tanks. Abandoned fuel tanks may contain fuel (really!). Outbuildings can be expensive liabilities, so look them over carefully.

The lesson is that things you really want to know about are often not mentioned in the real estate listing. Indeed the seller's real estate agent may not know about it because the seller chose not to disclose. Caveat emptor! Do your due diligence. It's well worth the time it takes. No one else will do it for you.

Putting down roots

Extracted from Google Maps

Study the satellite view of a section of a large property that caught my interest. There are several large open fields separated by some trees and bounded to the north by rough bush. When I visited the fields were overgrown and the bush areas were difficult to navigate. The reality on the ground is not so tidy as seen by the satellite.

Less visible is what lurks below ground. We care about that for two reasons:

• Ground quality for vertical, low-band antennas
• Excavation for tower bases and guy anchors

The geology in this part of Canada is shield rock (billions of years old) overlain with newer rock, such as shale, and then soil over that. The native vegetation is forest and thin bush where rock is prevalent. Soil depth to the underlying bedrock can vary a lot over a short distance. Think of it as ancient eroded mountains buried by newer sediments and organic detritus.

When you dig a hole you may hit bedrock that is close to the surface (ancient hilltop) or it may be soil or other loose material to a great depth (ancient valley or watercourse). Bedrock is a problem. It can be removed with heavy equipment that will add thousands of dollars to your tower budget. I've been through this several times over the years, including for towers and my present house. I want to avoid bedrock removal if at all possible.

The thin rough bush to the north is a sign that there is little soil over the bedrock. In this case as in others I've investigated the soil cover may only be centimeters deep and rock may in fact be at the surface. Trees have difficulty putting down roots which is why the vegetation cover is sparse.

The ground can be tested with simple tools and some ingenuity. One is a metal probe. It is a thin, hardened steel tube with a pointed end and large handles to facilitate pushing it down up to 1 meter depth. That's about the best you can do with a hand tool. Going deeper requires a drill or a backhoe. A backhoe cannot be used on property you don't own. Even a hand probe may be looked upon with suspicion.

A less intrusive test is to take a rough level off the septic system drainage field. Modern leaching beds in Ontario must have 4' of granular sand and 1' of soil above that. Thus the surface will be at least 5' above bedrock or other native soil. If the house and leaching bed are raised well above the surrounding land that is strong evidence of rock below. Knowing your own height and standing on the undisturbed surface face the house and bed and estimate the grade difference.

For the property above I measured a grade difference of 4' implying only 1' of soil above the native bedrock. Not only that, the house dates to 1860 and has a crawl space rather than a proper basement. The crawl space is another clue. Go down there and check for bedrock. It's worth getting a little dirty.

For this and other reasons I rejected the above property. However if you would instead choose to proceed you must add excavation costs to your budget.

Draw a circle

We want to maximize the land area within a given radius of the shack so that we can reduce the length of cables to reduce loss and reduce the cost. Let's say we want to keep the towers within 75 meters of the shack (or another radius of your choice). Use the adjacent diagram as our reference.

If the lots boundaries are outside this circle you're doing well! The only problems might be plowing your driveway in the winter and ever seeing passers by. But you'll always have your radio.

Should the house be near a boundary, whether a road or neighbouring lot, half or more of the circle is inaccessible. You will also be closer to noise sources, such as neighbourhood electronics and faulty power lines.

Working farms often have houses that are close to a boundary so as to maximize productivity. On some large farms the house and outbuildings are centrally located, which is good for radio and bad for accessibility.

If there's an easement for electric distribution or other utility wiring across your property use that as the boundary rather than the conventional boundary line since it limits the available land in the same manner.

The worst case is where the house is nestled in a corner of the lot. The available area is no more than a quarter of what's possible, or < 90° of the circle.

It is certainly possible to compensate when the lot is large enough by extending the radius. The cost of transmission lines and control cables can be a barrier if your objective is to have no greater transmission loss than within the smaller radius. Consider this when you encounter an otherwise attractive property.

Neighbours

I am plagued with noise here in the city. This is a common complaint and one without good solutions except to move. A rural property is not just for big towers and antennas but also for hearing well. Local noise is one reason I stuck with QRP contesting the past few years since it was the only way I could be sure I could hear the stations that called me.

I studied the number, distance and direction of neighbours for every property that I considered. I set 100 meters as the absolute minimum to be reasonably assured of quiet reception. The greater the distance the better. Although one needs less than 10 acres to build a world class antenna farm more land serves as buffer for receiving. More than that, it makes the towers less noticable and that is never a bad idea; all it takes is one antagonistic neighbour to make your life unpleasant. Apart from visibility the other advantage of a buffer is less risk of EMI when running two 1 kilowatt stations non-stop for 48 hours.

Of course that isolation can impede community interaction which matters to quality of life for you and your family. This is one more area where you may need to compromise to keep peace in the family.

Seriously noisy neighbours

Neighbours can include more than people. There are numerous noise sources that ought to be avoided. Not just today, but for the future as well. You do not want to move into your ideal noise-free property and only months later have a commercial wind farm or solar farm appear next door. This is not merely an academic concern (PDF); hams I know have to deal with this threat. I am all for green energy but...NIMBY. They can be very strong noise sources due to numerous and high-power DC-to-AC inverters and generators.

Search out these facilities and try to stay at least a few kilometers away. If you're not sure drive by the area with a receiver. Even a car AM radio can be sufficient. Tune to the edges of the band (~530 and 1,700 kHz) at least 20 kHz from a broadcast station, and not while underneath a power line or near a utility pole. What you hear at MF is a harbinger of what you'll hear on 160 meters and perhaps throughout HF and 6 meters.

Extracted from Google Maps

Be especially inquisitive when you spot one isolated wind generator. They tend to multiply, and often throughout the area since it is proven to be attractive to a commercial operator and local authorities have given approval. Scour local news sites for stories about planned facilities in the area: they are often the target of vocal opposition and the resulting news stories are easier to find than official government documents.

Use a satellite map service to look for suspicious infrastructure. Solar farms are easy to spot, as seen in the adjacent satellite image. You'll have to peer more closely to spot residential solar panels but they are visible. The larger residential solar installations can be noise sources though not always. Go there and listen.

One thing I've learned to be less concerned with is high voltage electrical transmission. There are many hams near these transmission corridors, including contesters, and problems are uncommon and moderate when they do occur. Even so I want a separation of at least 2 to 3 km.

Ground truth

Earlier in this article I highlighted the value of walking the land to discover undisclosed hazards. This is necessary even when there are no hazards. Make the effort. Just 10 minutes of your time is enough to evaluate the ground truth over as much as 10 acres. Wear hardy footwear and watch for holes hiding in the vegetation!

I always study the satellite view of the property and immediate area on one of the popular internet map services. Take note of any questionable features and inspect them on the ground. Do not accept the satellite view as indicative of what you'll find: the overhead perspective can be misleading, just as it can be from an aircraft. A good example is a few acres on my new property that I am considering for a future 160 meter array. I put the satellite view alongside the picture I took on the ground, facing south from approximately the spot indicated on the satellite view.

Left: Extracted from Google Maps; Right: photo taken by me

I have yet to discover the reason this area has reverted to bush. It isn't dense bush and should be easy to clear. I would think the local farmer taking a hay crop off this land would have liked to use it.

Notice what appears to be a small hill in the southwest corner, both in the satellite view and the photograph. I waded through the bush to investigate. To my surprise it's an untended berry patch gone wild. At its highest it is ~4 to 5 meters tall, with a big tree in the centre. I was relieved to discover it wasn't an outcrop of the bedrock.

There is evidence of old paths throughout this field. Otherwise it is no different than the surrounding fields. Perhaps disinterest or a change of ownership resulted in the field reverting to its natural state. It can be used for an antenna as it is, if one is willing to wade through the vegetation. That would be difficult and unpleasant.

More criteria?

I am sure there is more that can be added to my list of criteria. You could use mine as a foundation for your own list, based on your individual needs. There is nothing definitive about what I've written. You're the one that has to live there, not me, so do what works for you.

My new property

Up to now I've said little about my new property other than the photo above. The details will come in a future article on how I propose to use the land. For the moment I will say that is just under 50 acres (20 hectares), is located in FN24 and is pretty well set up to allow numerous towers and low band antennas without excessively long cable runs. The house is a bit of a fixer-upper, and that is monopolizing my immediate attention.

Tear Down and Review

As the closing date for my house came ever closer I could no longer delay removal of my antennas and towers. About 3 weeks before the deadline the first antenna came down. I then proceeded in stages until all was down, packed and their imprint removed from the lawn and house. My objective was to leave only footsteps behind, and that is just what I accomplished.

There was no need to simply pull the big switch and go QRT immediately. I planned the removal process so that I would be on the air for as long as possible, even if with lesser capability. My reasons were to remain active, since I enjoy being on the air, and to work a few of the current crop of DXpeditions. There will of course be other DXpeditions to these same countries but why wait if it isn't strictly necessary.

The order in which antennas and supports came down was dictated by operating priorities and dependencies; for example, the yagi must come down before the tower (obvious, I hope). As always I also try to learn something from what I built so that I can do better in future. That's the real purpose of this article.

80 meters

This 80 meter tower vertical was the easiest antenna to remove since all the components but one were at ground level. The radials were difficult to locate since the sod effectively covered and hid them in just one year. I rolled up the radials, cut them at the tower end and then removed the L-network box. Apart from the one previously severed radial everything was in good condition. The coax connector was pristine inside once the weatherproofing was removed.

The 3" galvanized framing nails that pinned the radial ends to the soil had substantial surface rust. The lifetime of buried galvanized steel has a varies with climate and soil chemistry. It can last less than a year or for a generation or more. The acidic soil around here is clearly unfriendly at least to the light galvanizing on these nails. But then they are designed for framing not burial.

With the antenna removed I cut the coax from the overhead cable bundle. This was easy since it was the last installed and therefore the other cables remained as a bundle when the tape and tie wraps were removed. The freed coax was pulled out of the shack and carefully rolled up. It is now ready for its next adventure. The L-network may be reused in a different configuration for a future antenna. I save everything.

Later when I was stripping the tower I removed the "insurance" jumper between the mast and tower. There was significant corrosion. The combination of three different metals -- galvanized steel, copper and stainless steel -- made for some interesting chemistry. I expected something like this but didn't worry about it since I knew the antenna would likely be up only one year. For a permanent installation attention must be paid to dissimilar metal corrosion.

Tower cabling

Removing the cabling was a one climb process. I planned it that way. Here's how I did it.

• Carry a rope up the tower.
• Starting from the bottom cut the tape and tie wraps securing the cable bundle to the tower.
• Stop near the top. Wrap the rope around the cable bundle in a coil about 4 to 6" (10 to 15 cm) long. While tempting the rope coil should not butt up against any connectors. This length of wrapping prevents kinks and pinches. Temporary tie the rope higher on the tower, being sure the rope is reasonably taut between the tie off and the cable bundle.
• Disconnect the coax runs from the antennas, cutting or removing the weatherproofing as needed. Inspect the connectors to confirm there has been no water damage (there wasn't). Do the same for the rotator cable. I use connectors so that the terminal strip on the bottom of the Ham-M rotator does not need to be accessed and should in any case have been coated in a protective goop of some kind. The connector allows the rotator can be removed later, not now when it is holding a mast and yagis.
• Cut the remaining tape and ties on the cables. The rope will now take the weight of the cables. Unless your tower is extremely tall the cables are perfectly capable of supporting their own weight.
• Untie the rope and lower the cables to the ground. Take care that they don't tangle in the tower and guys.
• Climb down and roll everything up

The only problem I discovered was that the bracket with an SO239 I had made up for the Explorer 14 feed point slipped out of the tie wraps holding it to insulating block and boom. I need to come up with a better bracket. Note that I do not use the BN86 voltage balun that comes with the antenna. Instead I used a coax coil as a common mode (current) choke.

Before climbing I had untied one end of the 40 meter inverted vee so that it could be lifted over the guy wires; I needed both legs to be dangling on the same side of the tower to avoid snagging the guys when lowered. The vee was untied and without a care was dropped to the ground, including feed point and coax coil choke. It survived the 14 meter fall just fine, as I expected. Any damage would have been easy to repair and I didn't want to deal with a second rope for this antenna, or have to do an additional climb.

The aluminum tube and clamps that support the vee and off set it from the tower were removed and also dropped to the ground.

Yagi

The Explorer 14 yagi was the only step in the dismantling process that caused me grief. What I expected to be a one hour job took 3 times as long. This is one more time that gravity was not my friend.

I installed the same rigging I used for raising the yagi. This time I discovered that the slightest snag on a tree limb, guy or even the rope tram caused major midair hangups. The Explorer 14 has lots of plates and clamps that will easily snag. Gravity makes it worse due to the yagi's weight (45 lb or 20 kg).

Since the rope truss holding the boom is designed to rotate (to make it easier to manually orient the yagi as each step of ascent and descent) these multiple snag events would rotate the yagi and make the problem worse. Tree snagging was particularly bad since they had grown over the intervening two years.

In the end I could not get the antenna to ground in one piece, or at least not before sunset. The alternative was to remove elements or pieces of element when I could reach them from the ground or on a step ladder. With many contortions and tower climbs, I eventually got it all down.

As I disassembled the antenna I grouped together the pieces for each element and for the boom. I only endeavoured for lengths that would reduce reassembly time yet make the package short enough to transport by small vehicle. I taped together the pieces of each element to, again, ease reassembly and then wrapped the entire package with duct tape. I was able to keep the 10 meter coupled resonator assembly mostly assembled, which was a boon.

Rotator and mast

With the yagi down I removed the pulley that I had temporarily attached to the mast. The schedule 40 pipe mast was dropped to the ground after loosening the bearing and rotator hardware. Although the hardware seemed to be gripping the mast quite well sometime this past winter a wind storm caused slippage. The 15° direction error was just enough to be annoying. Rather than climb the tower to fix it I mentally calculated the antenna heading. I knew it would soon be coming down.

Another problem that appeared in the past year was that the rotator did not turn the antenna smoothly. There were heading where rotation would slightly slow. I assumed this was due to the old worn bearing I had refurbished. Yet when I had it all down on the ground the bearing was fine. I can only assume trouble with my ancient Ham M. I will disassemble and service the rotator before it goes up again.

DMX tower

I considered removing the upper sections of the tower without a gin pole. I've done this before. The trick is to lift the unbolted section and smoothly rotate it while lowering it to chest level. When done properly the section doesn't spin out of control and smash against you or the tower. It instead comes to a soft landing across one side of my body and harness.

In the end I decided to resurrect the gin pole I built for raising the tower since I didn't deem the risk worth the time saved. Luckily I had all the parts in storage and was able to ready it in less than an hour.

Unlike the raising I handled the rope while up the tower. Once the gin pole was secured to the section below and the roped attached I removed the splice bolts. With one hand on the rope and one on the loose section I would lift it out of the tower, push it to one side and lower it to the ground. This worked so well I may try this when next raising this tower, if it is again a one man job.

Before removing the top section I disconnected the guy wires at the anchor. I then climbed the tower just once to disconnect the guys from the top guy station and remove the top section. The guys were thrown to the ground. They survived the fall just fine, as I expected, even the ceramic insulators. They're tough.

Before removing the lower guys I attached temporary rope guys to the top of the second section (DMX5). Guy removal was done the same as for the top guys.

With just the lower two sections remaining I removed the bolts holding the legs brackets to the floating platform and then the ropes. By hand I tilted over the remaining 16' of tower in the reverse of how I put them up. However this time it was more difficult. I expected and planned for this. That's why I wore a hard hat and boots.

The sudden increase of weight on my outstretched arms made a safe controlled descent difficult . When I reached that point I moved out from under the tower and only endeavoured to slow, not stop its fall. This was easier and safer than the alternative and the slow speed impact with the sod caused no damage.

The sections were stacked on the deck as shown in an earlier article. All the tower hardware went into a large plastic container. I now have a nice and neat package ready to be carried to the new QTH.

Inverted vee & Golden Nugget tower

The last to go was the first antenna: the multi-band inverted vee. Since it is an easy one to remove I left it up to the last minute so that I could keep operating. When the DMX came down I moved the leg anchored from the tower to a fence post. The impedance changed on most bands but was still perfectly usable. Unfortunately this wasn't enough antenna to work the A5 DXpedition on a difficult polar path under poor propagation. With nothing else of immediate interest it was time to permanently shut down operation from this QTH.

The toughness of the antenna continues to impress as I lowered it and bundled it up for storage and transport. The lighter colours of THHN stranded copper wire I used showed some fading due to UV damage. The black insulation appears to have fared better. There were no other visible issues. All the connections were free of moisture and the spreaders didn't slip. This may become the first antenna at the new QTH, just to get on the air with something before the towers can be raised.

I opted for "speedy" dispatching of the house bracketed tower, at some small risk to the tower itself. After removing the two 10' (3 m) sections of mast projecting out the top of the tower (again, thrown to the ground without damage) I set up ladders and proceeded to disconnect the brackets. This is a light tower (75 lb or 35 kg) so a strong bungee cord holding it to the eaves trough easily held it vertical.

With the bracket removed (and thrown to the ground) I wired the bottom of the tower to two temporary wooden stakes so that the tower wouldn't kick back and damage the house siding. Back on the roof I tied a long rope at the 25' level, then removed the bungee cord and gave the tower a nudge in the direction I wanted it to fall. Unfortunately the tower had a different idea. I pulled it back when it headed towards the deck. This action caused the tower to swing and put a dent in the aluminum eaves trough.

My second attempt was more successful. This goes to show why side stays are strongly recommended for this type of operation, which is equivalent to a reverse of the falling derrick method of erecting light duty masts and towers. I thought of doing that except for the fact there were no suitable places where I could the ropes could be anchored.

When the tension on the rope grew large as the tower passed the point of no return I let the rope play out with only the friction of leather gloves to slow its descent. (Please note that this is dangerous! The tower can easily pull you off the roof if you foolishly believe you can manhandle or withstand the force of a leaning tower. Leave the job to gravity. Towers are cheaper than your life.) With a light thump on the ground it was done. There was no damage. The sections easily came apart since I had greased the bolts and was careful not to over-tighten the bolts during construction.

Remediation

The wood platforms for the two towers were pulled out of the ground. For now I've kept them intact in case I decide to use them again. I might instead use materials that will last 20 years rather than the 5 to 10 years the preserved wood can be expected to survive in this application.

September is an ideal time of year to plant grass seed. I found enough organic material and soil to fill the holes in the ground, which I then raked and planted seed. As I write this article the new grass is sprouting nicely. In another two weeks it'll look very good indeed. The reseeded area is more than just the platform areas since all the work damaged more of the lawn closer to the house where the cables terminated and the house guy anchor was located.

The holes in the house walls left by the removed brackets for the Golden Nugget tower were filled. They are now ready for staining so that those areas match the surrounding cedar siding. The dented eaves trough from the botched lowering of the tower was repaired enough to make for an acceptable appearance.

Since I didn't have a milled board long enough to replace the one where the pipe pierced the house wall I used a round plug from a scrap board left over from the original construction. I made it a snug fit and sanded the area to remove ridges. I had asked the buyers of the house if this was acceptable and they approved. The hole through the house was filled with expanding foam, then the vapour barrier was stapled back in place, restoring its original condition.

As I stated in the earlier article my intention is to leave only footprints. Very soon the signs of a ham station will have been completely erased.

Lessons learned

Despite a few glitches, in general towers and antennas come down easier than they go up. There is nothing to measure, buy, build or test, all of this having been done during erection. However this can be deceptive in that we can inadvertently stray into danger. Respect gravity: it's stronger than you are.

I've gotten better at weatherproofing connections. There was no evidence of water incursion or corrosion inside any coax or cable splices and terminations.

Greasing of the tower nuts and bolts worked out quite well, as it should. Once the hold of the lock washers was broken with wrenches the nuts on all bolts spun off without resistance. There was little evidence of new rust.

Stainless steel hardware is typically not high strength! It doesn't rust but can be easily damaged with excess torque or omitting lubrication to prevent galling. I could have done better when I rebuilt the Explorer 14. I was in a rush at the time so I explicitly chose to take the risk. Some of the stainless steel hardware will need to be replace. I recommend taking the time to do it right.

Last minute reprieve

I could have waited had I only known. As a result of some frantic and difficult last minute negotiations among all the parties, and with one of my banks, the closing was delayed a few weeks. No matter. The tear down of the station had to be done and now I have an additional incentive to get cracking on the new station.

Interregnum

In days of yore an interregnum is the period between the death of the king and the coronation of the new king. That is, the interlude between the end of one realm and the start of another. It is thus a suitable description of the situation at VE3VN. You can get an idea of what I mean by the following picture.

All my antennas are down, as are the towers, and I am QRT for a little while. The reason is that I have taken the most concrete steps of all in my long term plan: I sold my house in the city and purchased a rural property. There is a substantial acreage to accommodate my antenna plans.

This is a big change in my life. Don't be surprised by the relative dearth of articles on this blog! As I write this I am uncertain about when I will be in a position to return to the air. I may get a small antenna raised just so I can operate a little, but that remains to be seen. Even though I was QRT for 20 years before my return to the air in 2013 I am now uninterested in a delay of even 20 days. Being in a position to operate the major autumn contests is an entirely other matter.

I intend several follow-up articles to talk about the new QTH and how I chose it, and how I went about the winding down of activities here in Ottawa. So, yes, I am moving out of Ottawa. That is pretty much necessary for regulatory reasons since city rules are not easily compatible with tall or numerous towers. But with politically driven amalgamation of municipalities it requires travelling quite a distance to escape the city.

Although I have not written about it there have been additions to my store of hardware, including the pieces of a Trylon tower you can see in the picture above. More about this later as well.

Retrospective

Looking back on the previous 44 months of operating there are several achievements that stand out for me. Not surprisingly these involve my two main operating interests: DX and contests. There is also station construction, including antenna design and construction, and towers.

First there's QRP. Hams who have only known me recently (since my return to the hobby after 20 years being away from it) think of me as a QRPer. Yet until I got back on the air after purchasing a KX3 I had never operated QRP. I was always a QRO operator, limited only by my budget and environment (neighborhood EMI). For this reason the contesting I did from my own station was done with the amplifier turned off.

Luckily I got back on the air as this most recent solar cycle was arriving at its peak, low as it was. I was able to work 226 countries mostly using 10 watts (not true QRP, except when running 5 watts in contests) and small antennas. Indeed my first 100 countries were worked using the house eaves troughs as my antenna. Eventually I surpassed 100 countries on all bands from 40 to 10 meters, excepting 12 meters.

With 100 watts starting in early 2015 and a tri-banders a few months earlier my DX totals climbed. With my station now dismantled my worked and confirmed (LoTW) totals are summarized in the adjacent chart. As you can see I've done reasonably well. Countries that I've missed include those with no recent activity or in areas of the world that are particularly challenging from VE3 with my limited power and antennas.

The one DX contact that most comes to mind when I think of what gave me the most pleasure was working VK0EK on 80 meters. With QRP it would perhaps be FT5ZM on 40 meters.

Operating QRP in contests went surprisingly well. I achieved two consecutive world #1 plaques in CQ WW SSB and as high as #2 in CQ WW CW. I also compared favourably with the top US and Canadian QRP contesters in the ARRL DX contests, where the scoring allows better comparison. My best placing there was a #2 on CW. With those and many other QRP contests under my belt I look back on this period with fondness. However I am moving on and plan to primarily operate QRO in future contests; QRP is likely to make an appearance from time to time.

The towers and other supports I've built are not remarkable. Even so I was pleased to be able to put into practice my experience and knowledge that allowed me to do all the work myself. Although I would not advise anyone to do tower work solo the opportunity allowed me to devise tools and practices to make it work and to be able to do so on my own schedule and not inconvenience my now smaller circle of local ham acquaintances. Most of those I used to do tower work with have moved, passed away, left the hobby or are too elderly to undertake the work.

Dismantling was also a one-man job, but easier. However gravity is not always your friend when taking things down. But I'll leave that for a future article.

Designing small, effective antennas for a small city lot can be more challenging than doing so for large towers on a large rural property. Eking performance out of a small package can be daunting. My approach to computer modelling is much improved, as are the tools. Whereas 25 years ago I wrote my own software to do SDC (stepped diameter correction) for yagis it is now a feature included with most modelling software based on the ubiquitous NEC2.

Although I'd been out of the hobby for 20 years my improved knowledge of the underlying physics and practical approaches to getting things done paid dividends. Just living life and solving technical and business problems throughout my career does help in ham radio tasks. Age brings a few advantages.

Nothing but footprints

I set a goal to leave nothing behind at my city property. No concrete for towers meant that I had only to dig out my floating wood platforms that I used as tower bases and refill the shallow holes with dirt and plant grass seed.

Nothing but footprints

The guy anchor that is attached to the house has been repaired leaving only a circular wood patch where the pipe pierced the wall. The holes for the bracketed tower have been filled and covered by wood stain. Without a careful inspection of the property and house you'd be hard pressed to know that a ham had ever lived here.

Perhaps the only lingering marks are the rings around the trees that served as guy anchors. I did not follow best practices for this, which would require an adjustable bolt through the tree. Since I intended to use the trees for only up to 2 years I was willing to risk using a cable girdle around the tree trunks. The trees have already begun their task of growing around the invading cables. That process takes more than 2 years. The static load on the trees from guy wire pre-load tension was light enough to not cause serious damage to the bark. In short, the trees are perfectly okay and should quickly heal from the damage I caused.

Considering the dismay that some potential buyers expressed at the towers, antennas and masses of cables I think the new owners should be pleased with the remediation I've done. My realtor was amused that there was one potential buyer who expressed an interest in keeping the towers if they were to buy the house! I don't know if he was a ham, CBer or interested in OTA television.

Now as I leave the house I built 23 years ago and where I first built a station 32 years ago there is some sadness. Surprisingly many of my neighbours are the same ones I had in 1984. They have been especially tolerant of my reentry to the hobby and the requisite towers and antennas. With the yard cleared of all trace of an amateur radio station it seems quite sterile to my eyes. But life moves ever onward.

Steps forward

Possession date for the new property is only a few days hence. While the house is basically sound and of modern construction and amenities it has serious shortcomings. Those must be dealt with before I move in full time. I will commute while renovation is being done and for on-site planning of the new station. For the past weeks I could only work with the site plan and satellite images.

The antenna farm will include several towers. How much I can accomplish before winter wallops us here in the Great White North is to be seen. The important thing is to prioritize the towers and then fit in whatever antennas I can. Since a high inverted vee will outperform a low yagi for DXing you should be able to appreciate my priorities. Some antenna work will be possible over the winter months.

I will write more on the topic as time and energy allow. I have much to say but little opportunity at present for writing. Eventually it will all come out. I hope that readers will enjoy reading about my forthcoming adventure.