Phil
Great stories from   the fearless antenna man.

John  KC2QJB


-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Phil Scovell
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 8:10 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: One good thing a blind ham can do

Living in Omaha as a teenager, during the hot summer days, I used to have to
wait until midnight for the roof to cool down because the shingles were just
burning, even through your shoes, during the day.  I had a little 3 element
TH3 Junior tri bander on an 8 foot tripod and a 5 foot mast so if I were
lucky, the little beam was 28 feet off the ground.  Trees in the yard were
higher but that, I figured, was good for lightning protection, haha.  I was
using the A R22 rotor.  I was doing something with the RG8 coax so I
disconnected it from the beam after stepping up two step brackets of the
tripod.  I sat down on the still, quite warm, roof and began working on the
connector.  My coax snaked down over the edge of the roof, passed my
mother's bedroom window, and down through a basement window into my shack. 
I learned my lesson that night to wrap the coax around my waist, or around
one leg at least once, so the coax wouldn't get away from me.  You know how
heavy RG8 gets after 50 feet or 100 feet.  Anyhow, the coax slipped from my
hands and went sliding away down the roof and coiled in the grass between
houses.  No, I might be blind but I wasn't about to dive head first right
after the sliding coax in case I did a header off the roof.  I said, "Oh,
shoot," or something like that, haha, because now I would have to find the
ladder, climb down, hunt around for the coax in the grass, thread it back up
to the roof, re-climb the ladder, and another hour would  be lost.  Before I
could start my trek off the roof, I heard a side window slide up and my
mother's voice from within the air conditioned house saying, "Philip!  Is
that you on the roof?"  I sighed and said, "Yes, it is me, mom."  "What are
you doing at this time of night on the roof?" she wanted to know.  "You are
going to wake the neighbors.  Still mad at myself for letting the coax slide
away, I calmly said, "I'm trying to fix my coax."  She insisted I get down
and right now.  She didn't care I was on the roof, I did it all the time,
but she was trying to go to sleep so she could go to work the next day.  I
didn't tell her I had to climb down and climb back up again but I was much
quieter the next time.  So blind guys, if they are young enough and skinny
enough, can work on their towers and antennas in the dark; at least I always
did.  Shoot, I remember climbing my 65 foot tower to fix a burned out relay
on Christmas day here in Denver when it had just snowed the night before 25
inches.  Only time I ever used gloves climbing a tower but I took them off
as I worked on the relay and coax feeding it and it was 3:30 PM and the son
was behind the mountains.  Fortunately there was no wind but it was 32
degrees so I was careful, tempted maybe, but careful not to touch my tongue
to the tower, smile.  My kids were all pretty little so they played in the
snow while old crazy dad was 65 feet in the air freezing his butt off.  No,
silly.  I made them play a long way off from the base of the tower.  It was
a standing safety rule because I was always dropping at least one bolt.  You
know what a single bolt on the head can do to your skull from 65 feet?

Phil.
K0NX