Thursday the 9th July saw all hands on deck as the new Cushcraft R8 kindly donated by Mr Tony Wilkinson GW4PVU was erected at it’s new home on the back of the club house. The supporting mast and pivot built by Ron GW6ZDH previously, was furnished with a new 18′ scaffold pole supporting the R8, the tip of the aerial stands approximately 60′ AGL. The co-ax run was no mean feat, we had a 90′ length of RG213 standing by for the job and this turned out to be not an inch too long, whew!! Because of the nature of the building, part block, part cabin, some of the guys had a tough job of feeding the co-ax under floor, sets of drain rods were used and the air turned blue on more than one occasion! By 9.30pm the aerial was up, the co-ax in place and everything connected up. There was a bit of a scare initially as a peculiar noise was present on all bands, after 10 minutes of trying to locate it, it mysteriously disappeared as quickly as it first  appeared!  The club’s laptop has been set up with HRD and DM780 and this has been connected to the HF rig, so along with SSB phone we also have data modes in the shack.

By 9.45 all was well and the aerial tuned up nicely on 20 and 40m, next Thursday the plan is to erect the V+UHF aerials and tune the R8 for all bands. With luck that should complete the setting up of the shack and operating tuition for all our new licensees can commence.