After finding the issues with our STL link on the last visit, we arranged to hang the receive antenna at a better tower location where it has a good view of town. We were given permission to hang it near the top of the second tower at the site.The first thing that we discovered was that we were NOT going to get up the hill without tire chains. The weather was starting to turn nasty for the winter and this was probably the last time we would be able to get up the hill in the truck.

Tire chains on the truck

As we began the ascent to the top of the hill we were greeted by a moose and her two calves. They really didn’t seem to be terribly bothered by our presence. Eventually they decided to cross the road right in front of us.

Mamma Moose

Calf #1 crossing the road

Calf #2 hopping into the woods on the other side of the road

Once we made it up the hill it was time to hang the antenna in its new location. There were a couple of other engineers already on site doing installation work for another radio station.

Full house! Four trucks and five engineers on site today…

Our contract engineer, Dave, had gone back to town for a bit. Once he arrived again it was time to start the antenna hang. The first step was setting up the cable reel and rigging everything. He had already rigged the tower with a pull rope and had a truck mounted capstain winch for hauling our antenna up the tower.

Cable for STL antenna ready to un-spool

Reid inspects and connectorizes the end of the cable going up the tower

Reid and Dave with the STL antenna on the ground…Rigged and ready to go up the tower!

Winch mounted to the back of our truck ready to pull the antenna up the tower

Reid mans the winch and the rope…

Dave mans the rope to tag the antenna away from the tower

Antenna and cable on the way up the tower

Antenna near the top and ready to be mounted

Dave on his way up the tower to mount the antenna

Almost done mounting the antenna!

Dave feeds the cable into the shack.

Reid wrangles the cable inside the shack…

…And then puts the connector on the other end.

Note the filter above the STL…We needed this to keep interference out of the STL receiver.

Success! A beautiful signal level and error rate.

We still need to go back and finish some final mounting and wiring at the transmit end of the STL but otherwise this project is complete.