Work started a little after 8AM. On the multi-band beam we found a number of missing nuts and bolts on the element clamps and quite a few more were loose. We replaced all the hardware holding the elements to the boom, replaced missing and rusted nuts and bolts, and replaced or tightened nuts and bolts for the jumper wires attaching the elements to the feed rails. The feed rails had rotated and were shorted to the boom near the 20 meter element, they were repositioned and locked down to prevent them from shorting to the boom again, which along with one tube in the 20 meter driven element that was ready to fall out, may have been the cause of the high SWR on 20 meters. A couple of the plastic covers on the traps were cracked and were taped with rubber and vinyl plastic tape to preserve them as much as possible. The 40 meter dipole was replaced with the new VHQ antenna and attached with a bolt pinning it in place to prevent it from spinning on the mast. All bands were SWR tested and were within acceptable limits. The antenna array was replaced on the tower about 3PM. Testing with the radio tuner showed all bands for both antennas matched without problems.
Thanks to Joe Barros, K1EZ; Ken Perreault, N1KP; Larry Ferreira, WA1GXV; Marcel Dumont, W1MLD; Richard Netinho, AC1JG; Alan Costello from Netcom; and A&A Crane Service for their expert tower and rigging services.
