My own skyscraper
The wait was long; at something over eight weeks I could have ordered puppies for myself and the next First Family and had delivery of the colour of my choice, complete with open eyes. Instead, the card from the postoffice allowed me to retrieve a cardboard box that was taller than the clerk who wrestled it from the back room and took my electronic signature. Home, where an evening of precise mechanical assembly awaited.
The Hy-Gain DX-88 is certainly more robust than the Butternut HF-6V I used to have planted in the back yard. Just in small parts count alone: I believe I have inserted and tightened no less than sixty-two “threaded bolt/lockwasher/hex nut” combos during the assembly phase. The documentation is sufficient, although I still don’t understand why the little black tube caps had to receive so much individual attention. Could it be that they contain the magical RF directivity?
The contents of my carton, unsorted and then roughly assembled.
Once I had achieved this much, the phone rang, so I set aside the tools and took a break for the rest of the night. This morning, I had the precision part to accomplish, where the lengths of the various tuned capacitors is “set” and all the fasteners are torqued into sufficient tightness to face the winter.
There was one small error to correct. My base, outside and encased in concrete was several centimetres shorter than required, so I made the requisite trip to the hardware store to purchase additional threaded pipe and connectors. I don’t own a pipe wrench, so a maul was employed. This requires a technique best left unexplained to future generations.
Here is the base section, with ground radials and coax cable attached. The gooey stuff will wait for the rain to end.
The whole antenna came outside in sections for final assembly and with the help of two sons we pointed the whole affair toward the zenith. Mission accomplished.
I am still considering whether or not a set of guy ropes will be added. I have three lovely ones purchased at a war surplus store some years ago, complete with the green canvas bag, but today was too wet and cold for anything other than branding this as a “job, well done”. My new vertical antenna certainly hears more than the random length wire it replaces, and I was able to tune up without tripping the circuit breaker.
