The 2015 Jock White Field Day is fast approaching at the end of February and Mike ZL2VM needed the 80/40 Trap antenna at the club to be working properly. It had a very low resonance on 80M and was not all that high in the trees. President Laurie, ZL2TC volunteered to make repairs and Lee ZL2AL volunteered his trusty spud gun. Wally, ZL2MO was also available for the morning and decided to join the party. His help as 2IC of the spud gun patrol was most valuable. We arrived around 9AM thinking it would be over in a few hours. Antennas don’t work that way. After hauling down the antenna we decided to put both ends up much higher in the trees and also change the feedline to a heavier version in anticipation that the our Linear Amp would be fired up and in the system some day.
Five hours later the antenna was back up much higher in the trees, resonating almost 1:1 at 50 ohms on both bands with a new feedline and connector. It will be interesting to see what Mike and the team using ZL2GT Branch 99 (Home Station) will be able to achieve in the contest. Lee, Stan, John ZL2QM and Wayne ZL2WG will be operating ZL2G Branch 25 from the ZM4T Contest site.