My Cushcraft X7 Big Thunder yagi antenna worked great for about 15 years. Eventually the ends of the reflector bent down; last summer I encountered high SWR and now couldn't tune it up. I bought a Raising fixture from US Tower to make work easier. I suspected the coax cable for open or short, but when I lowered the tower and removed the antenna I had a big surprise; the power leads to the antenna from the network box (balun) were missing! For years, the braided wires were vibrating in the wind and finally broke off. I took down the rotator too for maintenance. It's a Create RC5-1, in service since 1990!
The raising fixture worked great after US Tower sent me the idler pulley free of charge. I have an old tower with no place to attach the pulley, so they manufactured an attachment for me, thank you very much!
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Just three weeks passed since I took the antenna down and I got all the parts I needed. I repaired the yagi elements by replacing the bent tubes and inserted 12" aluminum rods and tubes to the joints so it's not likely that the birds can bend them again. I also painted the antenna and the tower and replaced the steel rope that holds the inner section of the tower.
I found out on the web that the manufacturer of the Create rortator in Japan still makes and sells the rotator I have. I needed a plastic gear and the seal ring for it. To my great surprise they immediately sent me those parts free of charge! Thank you very mch!
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Mission accomplished!
It took four weeks to finish the job; I am back on the air! My first DX contact was J49C from Crete, Greece.
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