FINALLY the 8-L 6-M InnovAntenna is UP!

8-L at 95'AGL Through the Trees on Rohn 45

This project has been a long time coming.  In July 2015 the 8-L 6-M InnovAntenna yagi arrived from Great Britain.  I had spoken to Justin Johnson, GØKSC, at the Dayton Hamvention in May and placed the order.  But it was not until August that I was able to construct it.  Check THIS Blog Post for those details.

The build took place at the QTH of my good friend, Tim, K8RRT, because he had much more available room than me.  Once the antenna was built, I raised it to about 39-feet on Tim's Rohn 45G tower to proceed with tuning the antenna.  Check THIS Blog Post for the details on the antenna tuning.

Once I had the new antenna at my QTH, I was not able to get it up on the tower immediately.  My tower is located in the woods behind my house (down over the hill.)  The base is located about 35 feet below the level of the house and it is quite difficult to get to and work around. Still, as Lance, W7GJ, was about to operate a 6-M EME DX'pedition from V6M, the Federated States of Micronesia, I felt the burning need to try and work him even if the antenna was not atop the big tower.  So as any reasonable ham would do, I erected the antenna temporarily in my front yard!  Check THIS Blog Post for the temporary installation details.  This did not please the Homeowner's Association but the really good news is that I WAS HEARD by Lance!  I was  not able to complete the QSO but still, it was 1/2 of a 6-M EME QSO in my book!

I still could not find a way to get the antenna up onto the tall tower.  It lay on the patio for the next 3 years. But in the summer of 2018 I really wanted to join in on all the DX fun (it had been 4 years since I worked a New One on the Magic Band) - and, I hoped to just maybe work a Japanese station on 50 MHz.  So, I took down the EME antennas from the short tower at the house and put up the 6-M antenna. See a photo on the Photo Link below.

In the 3 weeks the antenna was on the EME tower, I managed to work ELEVEN New Ones bringing my 6-M total to 121.  This certainly proved to me the value of this antenna.  However, it had to come down before it was damaged.  I had just "roped" it to the side of the EME tower and any windy day or a thunderstorm threatened to damage the antenna.  Still, it had proved its worth!

Move forward three more years to the present and I finally decided that I was just not going to be physically able to work on my 85-foot tower myself.  So, I contracted with a firm who has done a lot of antenna work for local hams.  I had them remove the damaged 4-L SteppIR and the 12-foot mast that supported it.  Then they pulled up the new 15-foot mast (See THIS Post for info on the new mast,) the 1-5/8" Heliax, and then pulled up the 8-L 6-M InnovAntenna to it's new location at 95-feet AGL.  

It took a week to complete this project.  You can Click HERE for Photos of this project.  Click on the "i" within the circle to read a description of each photo.  Then click on the first photo to move through all the images in a larger size.  Also, Click HERE for Video (less than 6 minutes) which is a compilation of several shorter videos shot while the antenna was being pulled up from ground level to its final resting place.

Day #1 of the project was me with my grandsons, Owen and Grant, clearing the area, putting together the sections of the beam, me breaking the balun!, and the need for me to make TWO trips up and down the hill.  WHEW!

Day #2 had Joe Beam and his crew come and remove the 4-L SteppIR antenna.  Thank goodness the grandsons, Owen and Grant were also here to help take apart that monster.  I only had to make one trip up and down the hill and don't think I had another one in me.  After accidentally breaking the balun, I followed the advice of Charlie, N8RR, and managed to re-build the balun with a new piece of coax plus using the 25 ferrite toroids from the damaged balun.  You can see the result of that re-build on the above Photo Link.

Day #3 started with "Marvin" of Joe's crew climbing and "limbing" a bunch of trees to give enough room for the antenna to go up and to later rotate.  Due to the physical exercise of the previous days, I was not able to make it outside until noon except to greet the crew upon arrival.  After the Aleve(tm) kicked in, I went out and made one more trip over the hill to help with pulling up the 8-L 6-M beam.  Owen ran the tag line and both of Joe's crew were on the tower.  Joe was at the top of the hill running the winch.  You can see a photo of the antenna on its way up on the Photo Link above.

Day #4 "Marvin" and "Paul" came to trim one more tree and to pull up the 1-5/8" Heliax.  It was a "Good News - Bad News" kind of day.

My Grandson Owen and I rolled out the 190-feet (or so) of 1-5/8" Heliax with "Paul" from Joe Beam's crew holding the end which had the 7/16" DIN connector which Tim and I had installed.  Click HERE for details on that.  This would be the end at the top of the tower.  We had to use nearly all the neighbor's yard clear to the street for the cable to unroll the entire length of cable.

Right away Paul hooked up the pull rope and using the winch, pulled the Heliax up to the top of the tower.  "Marvin" was up on the tower to secure the cable.  This went VERY fast!  I can not imagine trying to haul this cable up by hand.  It weighs 0.72 pounds per foot so the 140-feet or so that we used today weighs about 100 pounds.

At this point Paul went up the tower to attach the "hangers" to secure the Heliax to the tower plus carry the weight of that cable.  Marvin started climbing a tree that had to be cut back and began working on that.  Owen took off to the doctor because he picked up a serious case of poison ivy or poison oak when he was here on Day #3.  He ended up with a steroid shot and is feeling somewhat better.

I then began installing the female N-Connector on the 1/2-inch Heliax which runs under the back yard and into the shack.  Just to make sure this system would play, I put a small amount of my blood onto my work!  Before I finished that connector, my grandson, Grant, showed up and he helped me saw off about 42 feet of the 1-5/8-inch Heliax which was surplus to this installation and then helped me use the Commscope-Andrew Easiax Automated Prep Tool (CPT-158U) to prepare this big feedline for the connector installation.  That went quite well and the big Heliax now has a 7/16" DIN connector on the shack end as well as the antenna end.
 
At this point, Joe Beam showed up just as his crew was finishing and packing up.  Grant left to go do other things.  After Joe and his crew left, I finished the connector installation on the 1/2-inch Heliax and connected the 1/2" to the 1-5/8" cables with a 10-foot jumper of 1/2" SureFlex Heliax with an N-Male on one end and a 7/16" DIN Male on the other.  

I then taped Ziploc bags over each of the connector joints - just in case.  As it turned out, as I was picking up my tools, it started to rain!  Not a lot but it was enough to make me glad I had covered my butt so to speak.  I will apply a more permanent weatherproofing solution to those joints at a later time.

I quickly hooked up the new antenna and did an SWR check.  Things looked REALLY good.  Remember my antenna was tuned for the low end of the band for SSB and CW but my tuner will adjust the SWR at 50.313 to 1:1 so, no worries!

Logger32 Beam Heading

50.100   1.1:1
50.150   1.2:1
50.200   1.3:1
50.250   1.3:1
50.300   1.4:1

Now here is where the Bad News comes in. Just after checking out the SWR, I found my rotor did not rotate.  That was a huge BUMMER!  I was trying to hear the K8MMM beacon and went to rotate the antenna a little to the West and the rotor controller gave me an "E 1" error message.  At this point I called it quits for the day.  But when I came back later, I found that the rotor would rotate just fine in the ClockWise direction but not at all in the CCW direction.  Possibly that was just an issue with the CW wire between the controller and the rotor.  I also found that I had picked up two ticks on my left leg.  Thankfully neither one infected me with any "tick-borne" diseases.

On Monday, "Paul" came to help figure out the rotor issue.  He climbed the tower checking the rotor cable as he went and found no problems.  Where the cable attaches to the pigtail coming out of the rotor I had used a pair of "Trailer Plugs."  Paul found some corrosion there and by plugging/unplugging the connections plus a little cleaning of the pins, the rotor now turns just fine.  As you can see in the image on the right, my M2 Orion RC2800PX rotor controller interfaces just fine with Logger32 to tell me where the antenna is pointed and to allow me to quickly and easily rotate the antenna.  Click HERE for a 20-second video of this feature in action.

I think this installation will play very well.  There is approximately 262-feet of feedline from the antenna to the radio including all jumpers.  The combination of 1-5/8" and 1/2" Heliax pieces should result in a total feedline loss of 1.35 dB which includes an allowance of 0.50 dB loss for 10 connectors (0.05 dB per connector.)

On June 26, 2021, just 5 days after installing the antenna the above station was decoded. This 9K2NO (Kuwait) entity would be a New One for me (No. 124 on 6-M) but propagation did not last long enough for a QSO.  I think at this point I will say this antenna project was definitely worth the effort!  Bring on the 6-M DX!!

Finishing the Tower Base

Yesterday my friend and concrete master, Tim, K8RRT, came by to remove the form from the base around of the EME tower and do some concrete finishing work.  He had no idea what a nightmare he was facing.  Of course, temperatures were in the low 90's and pretty humid and Tim had just finished a few hours working on Charlie, N8RR's, EME tower!

Tim has done this job hundreds of times but this time, the 2x4 frame would not cooperate.  It seems that during the pouring of concrete, some was spilled on one side of the frame, next to the house steps.  When it set up and expanded, that piece of 2x4 was trapped just as if it were in a vise.

The other sides were easily removed but that one 2x4 would not budge an inch.  Tim tried prying it out, chipping it out with a pry bar and hammer, even beating it to death with a 5-foot spud bar.  But, that wood would not move.

I brought out a reciprocating saw and although it did some serious damage to the 2x4, the blade was not long enough to cut completely through the long dimension of the wood.  So, time to bring out the big gun!  My Stihl chainsaw was pressed into service and made short work of removing (and destroying) the 2x4.  (Click on the image at the left for a larger view.)  Tim then mixed up some concrete and smoothed off the surface and edges of the tower base very professionally.

Now I can get my "crack tower crew" (the grandsons) to replace the landscaping rock.  This will please Evelyn that things are getting back to no longer looking as if we are "Under Construction!"

Thanks So Much, Tim!

EME Tower Construction Progresses

OH, to be young again!  I can remember doing station construction projects about 40 years ago and today, there is simply no way I can manage to do things at that level.  Surprised?  Not really, but when my 14 and 15 year old grandsons "help" me, Grandpa sure notices his deficiencies!

This week 15 year-old Owen and 14 year-old Grant came to my QTH for three straight days while they were on Spring Break.  They were really eager to help Grandpa with his EME station construction project.  AND, Grandpa was extremely glad to have their help!!!  A lot of what they helped me do were things they had never done before.  Plus, they did things that they had never even SEEN anyone do before!

The boys are now big enough to wear my tower climbing safety gear so they got some very valuable experience in tower construction.  On the right you can see Grant pulling up and placing the Hazer cage at the top of the tower.  (Click on any image to see it larger.)  This was his first time actually working at height and he was a little unsure about whether he could reach up above the top of the tower to place the Hazer cage.  So, he secured the cage to the top of the tower and his brother, Owen, gave it a try.

On the left you can see Owen placing the Hazer cage over the top of the tower.  He then descended the tower allowing the cage to follow him down to the ground.  Since I had purchased the Hazer used, it came already assembled.  Otherwise I suppose I could have built the cage "around" the tower at the bottom and this operation would not have been needed.

Now that the Hazer was in place at the bottom of the tower, we needed to raise the top (and last) tower section into its place.  Grant was eager to get this job so he went up the tower and first pulled up and bolted into place the Gin Pole.  He had never seen this device used before so it was a great learning experience.  Once the Gin Pole was there, Grandpa pulled the top tower section up to Grant.  You can see on the right a photo of when that section reached him.  Even though he had no experience with stacking tower, it took Grant very little time to position the three legs from the top section onto the existing tower and squeeze them together so that they mated with each other.  SUCCESS!  We now had the tower complete.  And, I have completed the basic training of my new "Tower Crew" for all future tower projects!

Before the top section of tower was raised, we needed to construct a Pulley Block for the Hazer winch wire.  This mounts at the top of the tower and provides the point where the Hazer Pulley is attached.  This did not come with my used Hazer so Owen cut and drilled a piece of C-Channel for attachment of the pulley and the U-bolts to attach to the tower legs. (See photo on left.)

We then attached the Pulley Block to the top tower section before it was raised.  On the right you can see a photo of the mounted Pulley Block that I took after the tower was erected.

At this point the boys had to go home sooner than we expected.  Unfortunately, this left Grandpa to climb the tower, pull up the winch cable, thread it through the pulley and drop it to the ground through the center of the tower, put the last three bolts in the leg joints, remove the Gin Pole, wind up the rope, and put everything away.  WHEW!  That was a LONG two hours of work that the grandsons could have done in about 30 minutes.

The next day Owen and Grant arrived here at 6:50 a.m. (they had arrived at 7:00 a.m. the day before) ready and willing to get on with the project.  However, it took Grandpa a couple of hours to shake the sleep out of his eyes and get to the point where I could get started myself.  If anyone can bottle this type of youthful energy - I'll buy it by the case.

To finish up from our Day 1 projects, Owen drilled two holes for a second U-bolt in the new winch bracket for mounting it to the tower.  We then had 100-feet of new winch cable to attach.  Since the tower is only 28-feet tall it turned out we only needed 50-feet.  So, Owen got the Dremel tool and he cut the cable in half.  That leaves me with a spare 50-feet of cable if something happens to the cable that is now in place.  On the left you can see the winch installed on the tower with the Hazer cage above it.

Now we needed to make an excursion under the house.  I have a hole in the wall behind my ham equipment and all my antenna cables enter the hamshack from underneath the house through holes in the sole plate (two 2x4's) inside the wall.  The boys and I packed up all the gear we needed (large power drill, long bits, head lamps, extension cord, drop light, drinks, etc.) and we began a 75-foot crawl under the house.   The grandsons remembered being in there (what they used to call the "cave") when they were younger but they said it was really MUCH smaller now!  Thank goodness Grandpa had knee pads!  The ground under the plastic moisture barrier is NOT soft and smooth!

We had some difficulty as the original holes were drilled from the top down before the wall was dry-walled.  That wall sits on top of a steel I-beam so our options for drilling were limited.  I ended up drilling at a steep angle a half dozen 3/4-inch holes to make a very ragged opening.  I think I managed to do that without damaging any of the cables that were already in place.  We had also carried with us the azimuth rotor control cable, the RX feedline (LMR400-UF) and a 500-foot roll of 4-conductor shielded cable.  We then ran those up through one of the previously drilled holes into the shack.

After crawling back out of the "cave", we installed the azimuth rotor on the Hazer, connected the cable to the rotor and to the control box inside, and ran through the calibration process.  An issue was discovered that I will need to find an answer for before using the rotor.  As the rotor was being rotated clockwise, it reached a point about 120° where it jumped up to a fast speed for about 45° then reversed to the point where it started and repeated that fast back and forth motion a couple of times before resuming the clockwise rotation.

After dinner the grandsons decided they wanted to try climbing the big Rohn 45G tower down over the hill.  Both went up the 85-foot tower and were amazed at how much better the climbing felt on the bigger tower (the EME tower is Rohn 25G.)  The photo at the right shows Owen at about the 50-foot level.

The boys decided to stay the night with us so we had a great time relaxing that evening.  We watched part of a movie until Owen decided he needed to hit the sack.  Grant just feel asleep on the couch!

The next morning we decided to finish the exit method for the cables from under the house.  It was simplest to just bring them through an existing vent hole.  That hole is covered with an automatic vent cover.  Grant and I took it apart and we each worked on one half to cut a hole in the cover to pass a 2-inch (I.D.) piece of PVC.  You can see a photo of the finished vent cover modification on the left.

We then un-spooled the piece of 7/8-inch Andrew Heliax, routed it through the modified vent cover, and Owen pulled it under the house.  He then managed to push it up through the ragged hole I had cut the day before and Grant pulled it through the hole in the wall and brought it out behind the operating table.  Just having these boys to get down on the floor under my desk and fish these cables out through the hole in the wall is worth BIG money!  Grandpa's knees are not what they used to be.

While we were starting to fish the Heliax under the house a very strong storm front moved through unexpectedly.  It caught us off-guard and we had to dry off the tools after quickly moving them to the back porch.  Once the rain passed, Owen helped me measure out two 100-foot lengths of the 4-conductor shielded cable, marking both ends of each with colored tape for identification.  Grant made a speed run through the crawl space and fed those wires up through the wall.  That completed the running of 6 of the 9 cables that must be run under the house.  Only the elevation rotor control cable, a 12 VDC and 28 VDC cable now need to be run to complete the cabling under the house.

Those three days of help from my grandsons has helped me to complete the major parts of the tower construction process.  I can finish most of the rest of the project on my own since the infra-structure is now in place.  Many thanks to Owen and Grant for giving me three days of their Spring Break to get all this work done.  They are the BEST!

The EME Tower has been Planted!

Gravel for Drainage

Build the Form

Once my grandsons had finished the digging of the hole for my new tower (see the "O&G Tower Construction Crew" Post), it was time to call Mr. Concrete (aka, Tim, K8RRT) and get the tower firmly planted in the ground.  Working around everyone's schedules and the weather, it turned out that Sunday, April 2, 2017, was THE DAY!

I picked up the grandsons and then we picked up Tim plus his wheelbarrow and concrete finishing tools.  After a brief stop for fuel for the workers (Tudors Biscuit World) we were ready to begin the job.  My grandsons, Owen and Grant, had no real experience working with concrete so this was a learning experience for them.  Mr. Concrete had mucho experience so he was appointed as the Job Boss!

Lay Down the Tarp

Tim was very good about telling the boys everything he was doing and, most importantly, the WHY of what he was doing.  I am sure they leaned quite a bit that day.  Not just about concrete but even some tricks about sawing wood with a hand saw.  Tim was really impressed by how well the boys listened so it was a really great crew all around.

Pour the Concrete

I took on the role of "Stupidvisor" and Chief Gopher!  Anyone needs something and W8TN is your man to go and get it.  We only had one major issue develop and that was my choice of where to locate the tower in the hole.  Tim noticed that if we put it there, the Hazer that would eventually carry the antennas up and down the tower would not be able to clear the gutter on the house.  WHEW!  I am sure glad he spotted that one!

Just Add Water

You can click on any of the images here to see them larger.

We first put a couple of inches of gravel in the hole to allow water (that WILL accumulate in the tower legs) to drain out.  To make sure the tower did not sink in the gravel and get plugged by dirt, we suspended the tower by using a small rake under a couple of rungs to hold it at a particular height.  We tied three light lines to the tower and staked them to make sure the tower did not topple while we were working.  Another 3 inches or so of gravel was added and then it was time to add the concrete.

We had previously purchased eleven 80-pound bags of Quickrete.  When the smoke cleared, we had about 15 pounds left over.  I get credit for measuring the hole and calculating how much concrete would be required (plus, just maybe a little luck?)

Once the concrete job was finished, Evelyn prepared a great hot dog lunch that all enjoyed immensely!  My recollection is that the entire job took about 4 hours including correcting our (my) mistakes.  We then cleaned up our tools and the grandsons asked could they please mow the yard?  WOW!  They are at an age where that stuff is fun for them. 

After I took everyone home, I came back and spent a couple of hours doing the final cleanup work including putting the tools back where they belong.  The next two days were miserable for me!  I was sore in places I did not even know I had!  All I did was "fetch and carry" and that did not include lugging 80-pound bags of Quickrete.  Could I really be that out of shape?  DUH!

"The Crew" is DONE!

The Base is Now Planted

Over the next few days I kept the concrete moist to prevent it from cracking by drying out too fast.  Now all that we need to do is to install the Hazer and add the top section of the tower.  Then, it's time for ANTENNAS!

I am very grateful for the help of ALL the crew (and my wonderful wife!)  Without everyone pulling together this would not have taken place in such a relatively short length of time.

O&G Tower Construction Crew

Moving the Landscaping Stone

Yesterday school was out in Putnam County.  About a week before, my 14 year old grandson, Owen, asked if he and his 12 year old brother, Grant, could spend the night with Evelyn and me on Monday night.  We, of course, said YES.  Then he said, maybe they could dig the hole for my new tower.  DUH!  Free labor?  SURE!

So, the pair showed up Monday after school and we had a lot of fun that evening.  The next day, they were up about 0630 local time, ready to get out there and DIG!  Temperatures were in the high 30's at that time and only made it up to the middle 40's for the day!

I managed to put them off for a bit until I woke up enough by having them eat breakfast and hunt up the tools we would need.  They didn't actually start with the hole project until about 8:50 a.m.  By 11 a.m. they were DONE!  Just over 2 hours and all they had to work with were a couple of shovels and a maul that they used to break some of the rock.  That also included putting together a couple of Rohn 25G tower sections and standing them up to see where the hole needed to be in order to clear the gutter.

On Monday I actually went to Bosley Rentals in Cross Lanes to see about renting a jackhammer because I knew that the land here was mostly rock.  I had no idea those two youngsters would be able to actually dig a 2'x2'x2' hole without the need for a jackhammer or explosives!  I was SURE this would turn out to be a real PITA before the hole could be completed.  As it turned out, there was a fair amount of sandstone and some blue colored rock.  They could sometimes force a shovel under one end of a piece and pry it up.  If not, a couple of swings with the maul would break the rock into smaller pieces.

Grant Really Gets Into His Work

The first step was to remove the landscaping stone and the landscape fabric that were already in place.  In the photo on the upper left, you can see Grant throwing a shovel-full of the stone over one of my wife's nice bushes.  We did not actually have to remove any bushes but we did do a little judicious trimming on one.  Click on any photo to see a larger image.

On the right you can see that Grant really "got into his work" by going headfirst into the hole to loosen up some of the rock near the bottom.  Neither of these boys are afraid of dirt!  Nor are they afraid of hard work.  They actually look forward to doing things with their hands.  They love to work on engines and constantly are checking the oil in my 4-wheeler and coming up with jobs that we can do around here.  In fact, a couple of months ago over Christmas break, they actually re-grouted my shower!

O&G Tower Construction Crew

There was not much space to work so one of them would shovel and the other would carry the dirt away (over the hill) then they would swap jobs.  They took a break or two to go ride my 4-wheeler (they consider that to be BIG fun!) I don't think either of them broke a big sweat.

After they cleaned things up, I took them to lunch at Wendy's (yep, Grandpa is a Big-Spender) and we ate with Tim, K8RRT, and Steve, WW8RT.  After a nourishing 4 for $4 lunch, we drove to Home Depot and loaded ELEVEN 80-pound bags of Quickrete plus three 40 pound bags of gravel into the van.  The ride home with an extra 1,000 pounds in the back of my van was interesting.  If we hit a bump, the rear tires would rub in the wheel wells.  Twice when we had to go up a steeper than normal slope in the road, the trailer hitch drug a bit.  At home, we loaded the Quickrete and gravel onto the 4-wheeler and moved it around to the back porch where it could be covered with a tarp and kept out of the rain ready to be mixed and poured soon.

This even turned into a bit of an archeological "dig" in that they found some metal twist ties, the end that had been cut off a tube of caulking, something that looked to them like Fools Gold, and a crushed Coke can.  No money was found and the "Gold" was not real.

The boys even got a short carpentry lesson in how to cut a 2x4 to fit a 24"x26" hole.  They did not know about the fact that two of the sides of that "box" need to overlap the other two sides to provide a place to nail them together.  Call that a good life lesson learned.  They used a measuring tape, carpenter's square and a handsaw to cut the 2x4 into the sizes we needed to frame the hole.

One thing I will say for sure, and this is NOT just a Proud Grandpa talking, these two boys are WORKERS! And, beside the fact that they do so much work around here, I'm very, very glad and proud to know them!  They are growing into a couple of really exceptional adults.

If a Tree Falls in the Woods, Will the Tower Still Stand?

Last night the weather forecast was: "While a few, scattered showers cannot be ruled out throughout the evening and overnight...the main activity, in the form of heavier rain, strong gusty winds and perhaps even a few thunderstorms, won't near until 2-6 AM from west to east."  Specific forecast predictions said the wind would hit Huntington between 3 and 4 a.m. and Charleston between 4 and 5 a.m.  WELL - - - Just after 1 a.m. I was awakened by the house creaking and the sound of fast moving wind and rain.  It lasted until about 2 a.m. which was a good deal longer than I had expected.

Yesterday was the first official day of winter and record temperatures were set in both Huntington and Charleston at 75°.  The National Weather Service Area Forecast Discussion for Charleston at 12:30 a.m. on Sunday did not think the winds were going to be significant:

WINDS WILL BE GUSTY FROM THE SOUTH AND WEST THROUGH THE DAY
TOMORROW. DID BUMP WINDS UP A BIT BASED ON THE NAM. NOT HIGH
ENOUGH FOR WIND ADVISORY CRITERIA.

Base of the Two Trees

However, local TV station WOWK-TV reported gusts as high as 60 mph and indicated the storm was moving across the area at 85 mph.  Only some 5,000 customers were without power however.

Center Section of the Trees

Once daylight returned, I took a look to see if my tower was still standing.  It was, but darned if it didn't look to be leaning just a little.  Further inspection showed a tree had fallen from my neighbor's property onto the Westerly set of guys for my tower. 

As you can see in the attached photos, the tree broke over about 5-1/2 to 6-feet above ground level.  This had actually happened in a previous storm and the tree had been supported at about a 60° angle by adjacent trees.  
Last night's storm finished the job of bringing it down.  As you can see in the third photo below, the top part of the trees were resting on the guys for my tower.  Click on any photo to see it larger.

Both of my go-to "Chain Saw Guys" were out of town so the job fell to me.  I began cutting the two trees (which had grown up together) about 2-feet above the ground to get them low enough so that they could be cut off the guys.  After I made my first wedge cut, I went back up the hill to get the gas can and bar oil for the chainsaw.  At that point my neighbor (who owned the land where the tree was) came to help and he did the rest of the cutting while I did the pulling and such. 

Top of Trees on Guy Wires

Eventually we were able to free the guy wires but they are quite slack.  I assume the tower has been pulled out of line and the guys may have been stretched due to the weight of the trees.  I will assess that situation later and see what needs to be done.  I'm just glad the tower is still standing!

I will need to go sight up the tower from the base and see how far it is out of line and see what can be done with the opposite guy wires to pull it back into line.  Then, I need to see if there was any damage to the Phillystran from the trees.  I saw nothing today but will want to check that just to be sure.

Could have been a WHOLE lot worse!