Biography

Hello Friends and Welcome to AE2B QRZ page my name is Eddie Barra and of course my call is AE2B please have a sit relax and read my bio to get to know me a little more...

I've allays dreamed of having a my dream shack and a big gun in the air running a wire for over 20 years. Here it is 20 years and 5 months later it finally happened. My Tower project took 6 months to do start to finish. My girlfriend bought my RT Razor tower elevator system for me for a valentines gift 2015 from John Stevens W8RAT. We went to Orlando ham fest to pick it up from him. John designs and builds them. Due to a severely debilitating back injury a half a back of titanium and severe nerve damage to my lower extremities i cant climb no more and walk with a cane . So please keep in mind this whole project had to be done sitting or kneeling and 95% by myself as I cant stand with no cane because of no balance. Feb 2015 I got my tower elevator system. The following weekend ( 3rd weekend ) we went back to Sanford Fl. and got my tower used from another ham. Mid march i Strong armed all of my holes ( GEORGIA THICK RED CLAY ) a 40 x 40 x 30 deep for my base and 3 - 20 x 20 x 20 holes for my standoffs.

Sadly all sat for another 2 months till may 11 2015. I finally got my cement. Being the whole property is on a hill a cement truck could not access the holes. So my girlfriends brother came with his backhoe and filled the bucket then went top side and filled all 4 holes. That sat idol for 2 months. In June I personally cut down 9 trees delimbed them piled all limbs cut up 9 trees worth of logs carted and stacked them as well with some in excess of 100 pounds. ( remember all of this sitting or kneeling ) I received my Tennadyne T-11 Log periodic in June. That sat in the box till July 26th when i assembled it ( the boom over a 2 day period ). I designed my own tilt base and took my drawings to a welder july 3rd 2015 and had him fab. up my design which was a 23 x 23 inch piece of steel then centered a rhon tilt base on it and welded the bracktry in place and the solid 1/2 round stock for the swivel. I came back home and I drilled 21 - 6 inch holes and drove in 21 - 5 1/2 inch 5100 pound concrete anchors to anchor the base of my tilt base. My girlfriend rented an excavator for a week and we cleared out another acre of land which included the tower area. I took a 10,000 pound tow strap tied it to the cab of the excavator and very slowly spun and moved back to keep in a straight line with the tower and got the tower vertical.

Once it went vertical I locked it in place and then i then used 4 - 3100 pound anchors through the tilt part through the base part and now the two became one. Now its rock solid and ready for the install.July 27th and 28th i built out the boom on the porch. That weekend August 1st. it was carried out to the tower site. Sunday August 2nd I built out the beam at the tower site as the 1st element is 39 ft long so it came to the tower from the porch boom built only. I bolted my omni to my 25 ft alm. mast inserted it through the thrust bearing and into rotor then put a pulley on the tower lattice and hoisted my beam till about 7 ft. Then bolted that in place. Made my own standoff for the coax's and rotor cable out of angled alm. I bolted that to the rotor plate of the Rt Razor and Supported the very end that with a piece of Dacron so it does not bend under coax pressure. Attached my 2100 pound Phillystran . Attached my battery jumper to my winch control hit the up button and up it went flawlessly. Guyed it off and i now have my dream station. My 2-440 omni is at 90 feet 30 M high and my beam at 54 feet 18 M high. ( With so much thanks to My dear friend Dave Okeef K6JY ) he donated to me a pristine Kenwood TL 922A amp. . ( Thank you so much to my girlfriend Deb. who had helped me financially to help me build my dream shack ) Without those 2 ide still be only dreaming !!!!!!!! Heres what my shack consists of.

Equipment

For HF my base is a Yaesu FT 2000D with the Sp 2000 speaker And an MD-100 desk mike. My HF antennas are a Tennadyne T - 11 an 11 elemnt log periodic for 6 to 20 M at 54 ft 18 M high. Also a G5RV flat top at 70 ft 23 M high for 40 and 80 M. My base for 2m 440 is a Yaesu Ft 8800 powerd by an astron 35 amp power supply . My 2-440 antenna is a workman v-u 300 at 90 ft 30 M high and A Yaesu G-800 DXA rotor turns my beam. RG - 213 low loss 200 ft feeds my Beam and LMr 400 low loss 200 ft feeds my omni. My HF meter is a Diawa CN-801 HP3 and my Vhf Uhf meter is a Diawa CN-103L.