On Wednesday July 14th... as promised, I  traveled to the 146.94 repeater with the plans of installing the new antenna. I met Kerry Klimecki, the owner of tower services, who has been my choice for tower work for years. When we opened the mounting kit for the antenna, were we surprised!  While we could have made the side-mount arms that they sent with the antenna to work, they were very heavy and not the kind of mount that I have used with the Stationmaster antenna before. After some phone calls to the vendor, the correct mounting kit was located. However, Kerry has this little thing called a vacation coming up, so it will be another week or so before we get another try at installing the new antenna. I will keep everyone posted here and on the air. 

     MEANWHILE.... in other repeater news.... I had a chance to find out about 146.73’s new antenna status on July 15th.  I was informed that the anticipated tower work will be happening as soon as the week of the 19th!!  I am ready!  Once this work is done... the new 146.73 antenna will be mounted MUCH higher than the present one, and I look forward to seeing .73 working more like it used to when Sam and Matt Kirby had it at it’s peak performance. 

     I know that it seems like it’s a “hurry up and wait” theme today, but that’s the nature of things when you operate repeaters.  But the reward is definitely worth it! 
 
 

...Speaking of which....  Those of you who subscribe to the Southeastern Repeater Journal, might want to take a closer look at the November 2008 edition of the Journal.  There are a few photos on the cover that might look VERY Familiar....