Visit to the Greenstone repeater, December 15, 2015

I made an evening trip up to the Greenstone repeater (VE7RKA) on December 15, to do some troubleshooting on some UHF interference that was causing problems for the Shuswap Amateur Radio Club repeater on Fly Hills. After slogging in to the repeater shack on snowshoes, I was surprised to see a strange looking "wire" covered in frost, hanging from the tower.

After I dug out the door to the shack, I grabbed my flashlight and walked over to take a look. Much to my surprise it was the top guy wire from the east side of the tower -- it had broken off at the turnbuckle! And it was draped across several antennas on the tower, including two of the UHF link antennas! I wonder if this could have been the cause of the issue with the east UHF link to Salmon Arm!?

I managed to get it moved off the antennas and tied down right against the tower, but it was a little exciting because as I waved the loose guy wire around, clumps of frost and ice were dislodged from the top of the tower and showered down on me. And no, I hadn't thought to bring a helmet!

I plan to stop in Wednesday morning at Shaw's Enterprises and get them to make up a temporary "splice" that I can u-bolt to the broken guy wire and get it re-attached to the turnbuckle. At some point we will need to find someone who can do a proper splice on the guy wire (know anyone who could do this?). Wednesday night after work I will head back up the mountain and install the temporary splice, and inspect the other guy lines for damage. Anyone interested in joining me?

73,
Myles
VE7FSR