Sunday, November 03, 2019

And Even More Almost

     We're within an inch and a half of connecting everything at the 900-foot level.

     Paradoxically enough, this is worse than being off by a foot and a half: there's a minimum length for the custom-length sections, due to the interesting way the inner conductors are connected (long, tapered, springy "bullets" made of plated brass), and it's way more an inch and a half.

     So the crew is going to have to move heavy things, a great distance above the ground, in a controlled and very accurate way.  ...And the two most experienced members of the crew left to take care of a previous commitment a couple of days ago.

     By the time this was discovered, winds at ground level had kicked up to chilly, blustering gusts and at 900 feet they were approaching gale force; having to hold on with both hands gets in the way of getting anything else done.

     So they knocked off for the day, about an hour ahead of the usual time, and I got home ahead of schedule but even more tired than usual.  I looked at TV (Danger Man, Patrick McGoohan's first spy/adventure series) while enjoying a bowl of vanilla ice cream with a few candied cherries on top and went to bed.

     Today?  Well, today we'll try again.
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5 comments:

  1. JimBobNovember 3, 2019 at 6:31 AM

    How about 2 shorter custom pieces of transmission line at the end instead of moving the big heavy bits?

    ReplyDelete
  2. RandyGCNovember 3, 2019 at 9:16 AM

    Seems like Get Smart would have been appropriate: "Missed it by that much!".


    Sorry about that Chief :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jeffrey SmithNovember 3, 2019 at 10:48 PM

    You might find this page a bit useful
    https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/analysis/models/
    Granted, the main focus on tropical systems is more useful to me in Florida, but you can at least relax yourself with the geekish content.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Roberta XNovember 4, 2019 at 5:51 AM

    JimBob: the short answer is that the fewer connections -- bolted flanges and a spring-loaded inner connector -- the better, and even more so with custom sections. This is also one less piece that would need to be special-ordered if it needs to be replaced. We'll have a few full-length spares left after the job is done. So moving the antenna was the best solution.

    ReplyDelete
  5. CincinnatusNovember 4, 2019 at 4:57 PM

    Danger Man/Secret Agent was pretty good.

    ReplyDelete

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