Monday 17th June 2013

Again outside the wind was still blowing fifty five knots, so it was off down to the transmitter hut for the day to continue working on the transmitters and generally cleaning up all the cabling and the room it’s self. Once I had completed the transmitters and earthing, I removed all the overhead frame work that used to support the ten kilo watt hard line feeders going to the antenna matrix. I also made a support bracket for the four hard line feeders that enter the room. The main feeders are LDF-750 and where it enters the building it changes to hard line. I would have liked to remove these and interface directly to RG-312 but there is very limited access under the floor to access these cables and also this building contains asbestos so I don’t want to risk disturbing any dust.

When I had finished working I decided to try and seal off all the remaining drafts in the room. The floor had many holes in it from previous installations and removable floor boards up the middle and the wind blows up through all of them so I got some gaffe tape and sealed off all the holes and joints. Immediately you could feel the difference as the temperature rose about ten degrees. Amazing, all those things your mother tells you about sealing off drafts under the doors are true. As soon as I get access to a location to store all the RTA materials from this room, I will remove the big pile of rubbish on the floor and this room will be complete and I can move onto the next buildings which will be the old station. I have plans to clean them all up and to put some heritage posters up on the walls to inform people of their history and to encourage future expeditioners to respect them and take good care of them.

After work I had a tune around the bands and conditions were not so good.