WDØM - Pagosa Springs, CO

Pagosa Springs, Colorado




Adding 30 and 40 Meters to the 4 Element SteppIR

Continued

I decided to do as much inside the garage as I could, including putting the braces in the return loops. I discovered that the nuts didn't seat tightly in the brackets, and a small flat blade screwdriver was required to hold them securely while tightening them with a second screwdriver. I didn't tighten them completely, since the brackets had to be separated slightly to go around the end of the fiberglass poles









I did a quick "dry fit" test with the PVC inner liners that are eventually glued to the element housing unit (EHU). These PVC liners help the tape slide through the larger end of the fiberglass tubes. Eventually, the fiberglass tube is placed over the inner PVC liner and attached to the EHU with a rubber boot..
The next step was to drag everything outside, lower and tilt the tower, and set up the ladders. Ya gotta love tilt over towers! After trying all combinations of towers in the past, this arrangement is undoubtedly the best. Having the elements near ground level to work on makes life far easier (and probably makes life last longer too!) One thing that helped (voice of experience) was putting a blue tarp under the work area, so that small dropped parts were more easily found. That came in handy a couple of times.


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