May 25th, 2013. Unplugged...

WPX CW 2013

This past weekend was extremely beautiful here in Alaska! The weather was outstanding for a holiday weekend here in the US. We saw temps in the 60's and 70's, which caused extreme melting of the snow and ice resulting in lots of flooding. Rivers are still running crazy as the snow melt continues. We were in the upper 70's yesterday so if ever there was a doubt that summer has arrived, well no more! 

This was a morning view of our QTH on Saturday morning, May 25th, 2013. I had hoped to make a few hundred contacts in the CQ World Wide WPX Contest but the solar conditions decided otherwise. Another weekend of turning on the radio and hearing none, or very few stations. I managed a handful before I officially pulled the plug Saturday morning.

Split Ends

With the bad band conditions, it was not hard to unplug from the rest of the world. It was time to begin the dismantling of our station. Fourteen QSO's was not my goal for the weekend but it was what it was. My first HF QSO when moving here was with Ed, K8QWY on November 28th, 2003. I had a 2 meter SSB QSO, which was officially my very first QSO, with long time friend Sean, KL1SF on November 27th, 2003. And here it was, May 25th, 2013 and 52,937 + QSO's later, my Mosley once again finds itself being packed up, awaiting another installation at another location. Closer inspection of the beam found it still in wonderful shape. Penetrox continued to keep the elements looking new. I only found a small amount of moisture in one location, and oddly enough, it was in one half of the boom. Penetrox had the water beading like wax but still, there was no sign of oxidation. Good stuff for sure. The beam and tower have taken an arctic beating here and have withstood all that was thrown at it. I'm sold on Mosley for that very reason. 

Laying Down the Tower

Once the beam was off the tower, I removed the mast and rotor from the Hazer and then lowered the Hazer to just above the crank. It was time to lower the Rohn 25 for disassembly. The tower made it safely horizontal (thanks to Polaris) and the scene around the house took on a more non-ham profile. It felt extremely...well, ham naked! Once the Hazer was off the tower, we worked at removing the top section. That was the toughest section of all and understandably so. The top section was where the Hazer and beam were mostly parked and it took the worst beating when the weather turned bad especially if I had not lowered the antenna to a weather safe height. Once the top section was removed, the remaining sections nearly pulled apart with ease.

Once Section Left (Non Multiplier)

I'm letting the sun warm the ground around the last section of our second tower before digging it up. The smaller tower was the home to my 6 meter beam and 2m/440 vertical for several years. I had dropped the 6 meter beam and had intentions of putting my Hex Beam up on that tower, but it never made it from assembly to elevation. It is now disassembled with my other antenna's and looking forward to being used at our next location. My vertical (Hustler 5BTV) was unburied from the snow bank and it too was disassembled and packed up ready to operate another day. All the antenna's and tower are now in one organized pile awaiting the day the moving van arrives.

As camping season is upon us, I'm looking forward to operating KL8DX/P, as I've done in previous years. The camper is nearly ready and my portable equipment is once again out of mothballs and ready for use. But for now, the Mosley has once again entered into hibernation at 1930z, on the 25th of May, and getting a well deserved break. I have many of what I call, "Mosley Memories" to keep me smiling for many months to come.