He Must be Crazy!
Yep. I’m crazy.
Certifiable. My antenna came down during the ice storm earlier this month and I haven’t been able to get on the air. Well, the weather was nice today and I had talked about putting the antenna back up. My wife suggested that today would be perfect before it got cold and nasty again.
Yep. Me. On a ladder. Working above my head. Outside.
Yep. Crazy!
But, I did it! I’m darn proud of it, too. See, I don’t really care for heights, let alone ladders. Gravity and I don’t get along too well. Tonya gave me moral support and held the ladder while I was up there.
There were only two moments when I really wanted to click my fingers and be off the ladder, inside, and sitting down. Once when I was soldering the dipole leads (the main wires going from the house to the trees) onto the ladder line (the wire that goes down and into the house). I decided to try out my new butane soldering torch. Here I am, 5,000 feet (okay, 15 feet) off the ground, soldering with FIRE in such a way that the any extra solder would come down on my coat.
Kids, don’t try that at home.
The second moment was when I went up the tree in the back yard to make the final attachment. The ladder wasn’t as secure as I’d like it (though, I’m sure it was just fine) and I had to basically hug the tree to get the cord around it. Egads. Then I had to tie it off above my head which, unfortunately, requires two hands.
Well, it’s up. And thank goodness - it works!
I talked to a guy (ever so briefly) on 80 meters tonight in Paris, TN. It was an odd-ball mode that I had never used called Hellschreiber (or Feld-Hell for short). It’s an old teletype mode the German’s invented back during WWI. People decided to try it with modern day computers and have breathed new life into the mode. My understanding is that it was the first mechanized form of radio communication.
Well, hope everyone has a happy new year - and I’ll try to stay off the ladders for a while.