After examining the boom, we decided to replace all of the nuts and bolts as they were old and rusted. We also replaced all electrical connections on the boom with new ones.
The boom was then cleaned up and moved to the open garden where we could attach the elements.
With the help of Thos (EI2JD) and Tony (EI4DIB) we carried the beam out onto the grass to start attaching the elements. You can see in the picture that we have the boom support wires attached to a small pole to provide extra support for the boom.
So now we just need to attach the final elements, take a few measurements, adjust accordingly and then tighten everything up.
The rotator is setup in the shack and we spliced in the nearly 300' of control cable needed. We have tested the rotator with the manual control box and with the software and it is working like a charm. It is now a simple (!) matter of installing the rotator in the rotator cage on the tower, securing the control cable and then calibrating the rotator so that the stop position is somewhere in the south west direction.
Once the rotator is in place, we can then install the bearings and antenna pole in readiness for attaching the beam and the LMR400 coax.
So all in all its been a good week and hopefully we will have no problems raising the beam for use. Hope to hear you on the bands.
73
A few more photos....
