AARC members are used to putting up antennas, but pulling them down? That was what 7 club members were up to on Saturday, Feb. 22 as they removed 2-m and low-band (47.42 MHz – a dedicated Red Cross frequency) antennas from the Red Cross headquarters in Charlottesville. The reason? The Red Cross will be repairing/replacing their roof in March, and all the antennas and their supporting structures needed to be removed before that could happen.
Hams Larry Eicher (K4JZQ) and Ian Callahan (KN4TBG) worked as the ground crew, while Mike Richardson (KJ4MFN), Andrew Wiley (KK4SHO), Steve Hull (KN4TKR) and John Porter (KK4JP) worked on the disassembly on the roof. Ace antenna maven Ron Richey (K4RKA) worked the middle ground, between the roof and the ground with parts too delicate to be lowered by rope.
Antennas had been mounted on wooden frames, because penetration of the flat roof was undesirable. Guy wires ran from corners of the frame to the antenna masts. So disassembly required detaching the guy wires, lowering the masts, removing the antennas and coaxial cables and taking apart the wooden frames. Parts were then lowered from the roof via rope and stored for reuse by the ground crew.
The antennas will go back on the roof after the Red Cross completes its roof repairs, probably sometime in April. You can see more photos, including one of the roof after the completed job, at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/kjumQcVj6xqD4oyq7