W5T Preparation

We spent the afternoon installing and testing the radios and antennas. There was a nice cool breeze blowing and things went well up to a point. The gremlins come up when you least expect them to!

The 20 meter hamstick was notreceiving anything. Scott KD5KZJ climbed up top to check and found the center conductor wire of the coax broken. He quickly took the mount loose and handed it down. He came down even more quickly as a rain shower with strong lightning was moving through. We watched it pass while sitting safely inside the caboose.

We also had some problems with tuning the screwdriver antenna to 40 meters, but that was solved too. The rain had passed the breeze was even cooler. We finally locked up and left about 6:30 PM CDT.

I'm posting just a few photos because it's getting late and I need my beauty sleep. I need to be at the station by 6:30 in the morning to do last minute setup and testing before the train rolls out at 8:00 AM... See you on the bands! Hal K5NOW (If the formatting looks uneven, it's because I'm in a hurry to get these photos up here on the web.)

Home - ARKAN - Weather - ARES - Ham Info - Arkansas Info
Preparation for Memorial Day Troop Train Sunday - 25May08
We spent the afternoon installing and testing the radios and antennas. There was a nice cool breeze blowing and things went well up to a point. The gremlins come up when you least expect them to! The 20 meter hamstick was notreceiving anything. Scott KD5KZJ climbed up top to check and found the center conductor wire of the coax broken. He quickly took the mount loose and handed it down. He came down even more quickly as a rain shower with strong lightning was moving through. We watched it pass while sitting safely inside the caboose. We also had some problems with tuning the screwdriver antenna to 40 meters, but that was solved too. The rain had passed the breeze was even cooler. We finally locked up and left about 6:30 PM CDT. I'm posting just a few photos because it's getting late and I need my beauty sleep. I need to be at the station by 6:30 in the morning to do last minute setup and testing before the train rolls out at 8:00 AM... See you on the bands! Hal K5NOW (If the formatting looks uneven, it's because I'm in a hurry to get these photos up here on the web.)
Joe KD5TLH (left) and Scott KD4KZJ (right) are mounting the plate for the screwdriver antenna. Notice the supply of cable ties? We were prepared!	Looking to the the south on to the main rail line on the right. Notice the clouds? A nice rain shower with some strong lightning came through and delayed us for about a half hour. The screwdriver antenna is ready for 40 meters.
This is the ICOM 718 with the LDG Z100 autotuner that will be used on 20 meters into a hamstick antenna.	This is the ICOM 706MK2G with an MFJ tuner that will be used on 40 meters into a screwdriver antenna. Isn't that a classy cabinet?
Tommie KE5JNR is sitting in the operating position for the 2 meter rig up in the cupola where there is ventilation (Notice all the coax cables coming in thru the windows). The only other ventilation is through the doors on each end of the caboose. Eventually the caboose will have it's own generator and air conditioning, but tomorrow we are going to sweat!