He must be CRAZY!
December 30, 2006
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.
December 30th, 2006 at 11:19 pm
What part failed? Did the wire itself break?
I will say, the ladder up the tree part is something I’m glad I wasn’t involved in. It’s nice to have your ladder firmly resting on a flat surface!
December 30th, 2006 at 11:36 pm
The wires going into the middle failed. It was actually the second time those wires failed. I decided to forgo the holder that my dad brought over that held the wires together. I just put a ceramic insulator up and tied it to the bracket. Then I took the dipole wires and wrapped a loop around the insulator eyelets and solder them directly to the ladder line going into the house. I’m hoping that by doing that, the tension will be on the insulator rather than the connection between the wires.
We’ll see!
December 30th, 2006 at 11:38 pm
My biggest issue with being up against the house was working over my head. It required two hands which meant I could hold onto the ladder at the same time. Yikes! Also, being on the corner of the house really freaked me out. It looked like the ladder could just slip off the corner and I’d go down - but I think that was my imagination getting the best of me.
January 1st, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Good for you. Glad it wasn’t me. Got to the top of a ladder once when we were building the new church building. Lifted my hammer and started yelling for Fred to PLEASE! get me down pronto. Anyway Happy New Year.
January 2nd, 2007 at 1:41 pm
That second photo looks like a still from a German Expressionist film…shadowy and kinda creepy…nice!
Glad you didn’t fall on your head or set yourself on fire.
Do you know the Andy Breckman song “Don’t Get Killed?” Here’s the opening verse:
“OMG we’re out of milk
It’s the middle of the night and we’re out of milk
The grocery store’s four blocks away…good luck Mary, don’t get killed
Don’t get killed, don’t get killed, keep your head down, don’t get killed
Run real fast down the middle of the street, I love you honey, don’t get killed”
The rest of it is equally brilliant, as is his entire album of the same name.
xo, YFMS