Unfortunately the weight of the
crane did not do the concrete driveway of Berts Sisters house much good, and the evidence
was hard to hide.
This is the infamous perpetrator of the
most humungous antenna in the shire of Rowville.
(So the council said anyway,
before they told us to take it down.)
Bert had a full call and I wanted 11meters, so we
compromised on a 10 - 30 Mhz Log Periodic to do the job for both of us.
Bert figured out the dimensions and we both built it from scratch buying all
the tubing and bolts clamps and everything else we needed.
The trusty Bell & Howell work Corolla getting the job of
transporting all the aluminium and bits on the roof rack -JUST! We were
sharing his sisters house to pay the morgage for her as she had moved into
her husbands place.
We had actually met while I was buying a Uniden 2020 from
him some years earlier and had become friends over the years. Eventually to
go into business to create the worlds most advanced personal computer in
1980, the EXCALIBUR 64, designed, developed and built in Melbourne by us.
The completed project, a magnificent 35 foot boom Log. The ultimate wide
band DX weapon for two power crazed radio nuts. All we had to do was agree on the
operating times for Ham operation and CB operation without coming to blows.
( This I would not want to do, as Bert was acknowledged as one of
Australia's full contact Karate Champions.)
That's why he was also the one to have to climb the tower when we had to
pull it down two months later as he was the fittest and craziest!!
