There were a number of pieces that had to be straightened to make the antenna look good when
in the air. John and James also took care of that part of the project, and did a great job at it.
We also found that the antenna w
as not built “quite right” with some of the elements not being in
the right spot… Though I am not certain about this, several have speculated that the reflector and
the director were reversed. Now on a 3
-
element antenna, that would not make any difference,
except to point the antenna in the other direction, but with 4 elements, things are different. The
4
th
element is supposed to be between the driven element and the reflector, but somehow, it
seemed to be mounted between the driven and the director… That
could explain the disruption of
the pattern when trying to point to a station.
While all the Team members disassembled all
the pieces, Dan W5BM tested each and every
trap on the antenna to make sure they were on
frequency and that the traps were properl
y
paired up and oriented to make sure the antenna
tuned properly once up in the air. Now there are
“only” 10 traps on the antenna, but we put that
poor man through hell, and he had to tests each
trap 3 or 4 times! He would get done, put his
equipment up, a
nd then shortly thereafter, he
would happily drag it all out again to check it
one more time. He repeated this cycle of events
several times, but he was always good
-
natured
about it!
We all learned from Dan’s training on how to check the traps, and while
at it, he did find that one
of the traps were “backwards” from the others. We never really figured out why, but luckily we
were able to replace the trap with another.
After disassembly, each and every connecting joint of the antenna was sanded down and
cleaned
with scouring pads and steel wool. While
reassembling the antenna, each and every joint
was greased with No
-
Ox, an electrically
conductive, anti
-
corrosion compound to make
sure our repairs last. Continuing this train of
thought, ALL the hardware,
nuts, bolts,
washers, hose clamps and muffler clamps were
replaced with NEW Stainless Steel hardware
bought from MFJ as a “rebuild” kit.
Each of the traps were also rebuilt by cleaning
around and replacing the rusted screw that
makes the outer shield a c
apacitor for the trap,
and while we were at it, we replaced all the Trap
-
Caps with new caps to keep the water and bugs
out
--USS OKLAHOMA AND USS BATFISH HANDOUT--
After the boom was disassembled
and cleaned, No
-
Ox was applied
and then reassembled with new
hardware. Each element was
measured an
d adjusted according
to the manual for the center of the
band, and the elements were re
-
attached to the boom. Once done,
with the bolts tight, a crew went
through again and measured all the
dimensions again, and made a
couple of minor adjustment. Then
a se
cond crew made sure ALL the
clamps, nuts and bolts were tight as
a final check.
The final nicety was the application of new end caps for all the elements and also both ends of
the boom to eliminate the wind from making music with the holes in the elemen
ts, like a drunken
flutes. To make sure they stay there, each cap was glued in place with “black death” 3M
automotive weather gasket glue.
The crew then tilted the tower back down and the Beam was stood up on its end and the boom
was remounted to the mas
t. A long run of temporary / test coax was connected, and then the
antenna was raised in to position. Testing with the antenna analyzer indicated all was working
properly on all three bands. The tower
was then lowered again and the main
run of coax was re
-
attached, and the
connections were then weather proofed
and cable tied to the boom and tower.
The tower was then raised again and
secured to the mounting post. The head
CW OP, Gary W5ODS, and myself,
then took the 700 foot walk to the
radio room of the Ba
tfish and retested
the antenna from there. The results
were not as great as they were before,
but they were acceptable. The antenna
was connected to the radio and I must
say the bands were open, even 10 and
15 were hopping, I wanted to get on the air and
call CQ, but there was still more to do, and the
museum was closing soon. We secured the station and went back to help clean up the work area,
and pack up to go home.
Volume1 Issue 3 June 2011
While there, Gary also took the ends down on the 40 Meter inverted V antenna that is on
the
boat, and he soldered a few extra inches on to the ends to lower the resonate frequency some, to
help center the antenna in the band, and to help remove the need for an antenna tuner when
operating CW in
the lower part of
the bands.
ALL in ALL, it
w
as a very full
day, far more so
then dreamed,
and considering
the issues we
had, it was very
impressive that
it all got done in
one day! With
everyone’s hard
work, and about
$150.00 in new
stainless steel
parts, we have
built a nearly
new antenna
that with
any luck should give the club another 15 to 20 years of good service.
A special thank you goes out to all those folks that made a special financial donation to this
project. Without the financial support of our members, projects like these would not be p
ossible.
I want to thank a wonderful group of guys for all their help, everyone did more then their
-
fair
-
share of the work to make sure the project was a success and to make sure it was done in just one
day! The crew consisted of th
e following, but are not listed in any particular order:
Dan, W5BM
Ron, KB5VDB
Mike, AE5QL
John, N5TBM
James, NN5Q
Gary, W5ODS
John, W5EJK
Wade, KF5IF
Thank you guys! Your hard work is very much appreciated!
I would also like to th
ank Courtney, KF5BRC for taking the photos of the project.
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