A little antenna help for a ham in assisted living – the highlight of my month!

A little after Canada Day, I started working on an antenna for a ham who is now in an assisted living apartment, on the 4th floor of a 14-floor tower. It took a few days to figure out what would work to get them on the air. First was to get the building management on side but surprisingly, all that got worked out. The apartment window overlooks a parking lot, with some pretty tall trees on the other side. The trusty launcher put a rope over one of those carbon based antenna supports in one shot, as usual. The tricky part was finding a day when there were no cars parked near the landing area. Since the landing area of choice was a big dumpster, it should have been easy, but you never know what someone thinks would be a good spot to park. Anyhow, one day the wind was light, the dumpster area was clear and the shot went up like always. Next, a small, downward slanting hole was drilled in the window frame, just big enough for a piece of RG 174 to squeeze through. The coax had a PL259 installed on one end and nothing on the other, so it could be fit through the hole. Once through, a second connector was put on the inside end. The antenna of choice was a 40m end fed half wave. The box with the transformer was glued with construction adhesive to the outside window sill and the cable was hooked up and waterproofed. Because I’m not entirely trusting of construction adhesive especially when dealing with a plastic box, I added a steel safety wire. Then the far end of the antenna was carefully lowered to the ground. Its end insulator was tied to the rope that was launched earlier, and pulled up across the parking lot. From the 4th floor window, it was almost horizontal, with just enough slack (sag) to allow the trees to do their thing in the wind without breaking anything. A quick SWR check showed good news and we have another ham back on HF. Next thing will be a short extension cable for the paddles so they don’t have to holler into a microphone to make a QSO. I consider this project to be the highlight of my month. 

More exam sessions than usual

Also this month there were a few more exam sessions. It seems the threat of changes to the Basic exam in the middle of the month lit a fire under a few students. Maybe they should change (or threaten to change) the exams a few times a year, just to give the procrastinators a deadline.

IARU HF contest from RAC HQ 

Then, there was the IARU HF contest. TLY and I played in it from RAC HQ with him on SSB and me on CW. We weren’t on for anything like the full 24 hours, but we both had fun. If you want to operate the station, either for a contest, or just to make some random contacts, let me know and I will see about opening it up for you.

Amateur Radio Booth at IEEE AP-S/URSI 2025 in Ottawa, July 13-18, 2025

I expect by now you will have read something from HYS about the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society conference downtown, and the amateur radio booth there (click here to read the report). I was only there to help with set up and tear down (and maybe a few exams), but it reminded me a bit of my Carleton U days. Lots of very high powered brain cells wandering the halls, but many don’t seem to recognize anything that doesn’t have GHz in the name. I hope we got at least a few of them to remember that there are wavelengths bigger than they are. 

RAC Headquarters antennas

Meanwhile back at VE3RHQ, we are slowly starting to get the satellite antennas ready for the roof, starting with the rotators and working outwards in both directions from there. With any luck the outdoor part of the job will be BEFORE the other season arrives. 

That’s a lot for a month where not much seemed to be happening. Funny how that works.

73 keep cool
mk

Last Updated on 2025-08-07 by Eve