Last night when I visited the repeater on Greenstone I discovered that the top guy wire on the east side had snapped off and was hanging loose. I wasn't sure how long it had been like this, but it needed to be repaired soon to prevent the tower from coming down if there was a severe wind storm and/or heavy ice loading. Before work today I stopped in at Shaw's Enterprises and asked them what they would recommend for a temporary fix until we can do a proper splice. They were very helpful and I'd like to send a big "thank you!" to the guys at Shaw's! In less than 15 minutes I was out the door with five feet of 3/8" wire rope with a swaged loop on one end and a half-dozen top-quality wire rope clamps (total cost: $21.32). They also walked me through the right way to install rope clamps .
It was minus 13C and a windy at the top last night, but the sky was absolutely clear and there was a sliver of moon and a million stars right above me. A very scenic, albeit a bit chilly, environment for the repair.
I had come prepared with more tools than I ended up needing, because once you're up at the top of Greenstone, you can't just walk into the garage and grab something you forgot! The turnbuckle wasn't rusted or corroded, so I didn't need the penetrating oil, torch, or the myriad of crescent wrenches and other stuff I had packed "just in case". The repair went fairly quickly, despite some fumbling with tools and the nuts (not one was dropped in the snow!), which were a little hard to handle with warm gloves on my hands. You can see pictures of the "field-expedient repair" below.
It took a little less than two hours to snowshoe in, splice the guy wire, loosen the turnbuckle, hook the repaired guy wire to the turnbuckle, tighten and tie off the turnbuckle, take a bunch of photos, then pack up and walk out. I did stop a few times during the evening to admire the awesome view of Kamloops from the top of Greenstone, and to marvel at the stars. I left home just before 6pm, and was home about 9:30pm, so it made for a nice evening adventure!
Thank you to Bill, VE7WWW, who monitored the radio all evening to make sure I made it safely home from Greenstone.
Myles
VE7FSR
UPDATE!
I went up to the tower on Sunday, to see how the things looked in the daytime. I checked the torque on the wire rope clamps (they were OK) and noticed something I hadn't seen in the dark -- I didn't quite get all the clamps on the wire splice lined up in a nice row! I took some photos (see below) in the sunshine, so you can get a better idea of how things look up the hill in winter.
