This is a continuation of a previous article titled: "Tower Climber Checks on Antenna Shift- "Just an Illusion" ".
Though the antenna itself did not shift, there was something the climber noticed. The Rhon tower itself was shifting.
Howard WB4NYT spoke to Mr. Marquis about what was discovered upstairs.
Tower climber repairing guy wire.
While repairs were underway at the site, Howard tried describe to Rick WB9IJW by way of repeater on what was found at the site. But at the time, the audible crackle that also devours weaker signals had returned, worse than it had ever been and caused Rick who was not that far away, to fall out of the repeater. We were to find out why this was so, later in Howards transmission to Rick.
(Note: The crackle was originally heard not long after the repeater went back into service. But a few days later the crackle mysteriously disappeared.)
Howard described how the tower was mounted on a round plate that had a (as in one?) bolt going into the water tank. One guy wire snapped lose and the Rhon tower was 'wobbling around' on that round plate.
The discussion between Howard and Rick changed to the bad crackling topic that Rick was experiencing. Rick thought it was his radio and so he beat on it 'the way Sam had to do to his radio in the old days' Rick said. Howard replied it was probably due to the tower climber working on things atop the water tower. Given the very agitated crackle was worse than it had ever been, Howard is probably right.
Tower climber coming down, but there is no ladder here he is at just yet!
After the the tower climber had completed repairs, the crackle persisted for a couple of days and may have disappeared once again just like it did before. There has not been much activity to determine if the crackle is really gone at the time of writing.
One member believes it may be tower or guy wire noise, other members think the problem lies else where. What ever the case may be, one thing is certain. The crackle suddenly returned in an agitated state like never before, and knocking out weaker stations while the tower climber was conducting repairs. Though the crackle had persisted after repairs, the 'highly agitated' portion of the crackle stopped, once the climber completed work.
The lone member who believes the crackle/desense problem is tower or guy wire related, provides us with this interesting one page article on tower and guy wire noise, what the symptoms are and so on, in a small .PDF file. The article actually comes from a page in our very own repeater manual and is worthwhile to read as this situation can happen to anyone of us who fiddles with towers, poles, antennas, and especially full-duplex operation such as a repeater. Download the article on tower and guy wire noise here.