I had the 7-10 AM shift with Tom AJ4UQ at the NWS Charleston office for SKYWARN Recognition Day 2024. Tom was already there when I arrived, and mentioned the previous shift was having SWR issues with the HF radio and antenna. Stations were really quiet and they weren’t able to make any HF contacts.
The HF antenna is a ground mounted Butternut vertical. After the sun came up a little more, we went to check out the antenna to see if we could figure out what was going on. Didn’t take long to find the problem.
The feed line connection to the antenna had corroded away and was completely broken off. It was a pretty cold day and we didn’t have any tools, so the repair will have to wait for a warmer day.
Without HF, all we had were the VHF DMR and FM radios so we threw out the WX4CHS call periodically and managed a couple dozen or so contacts from across the state through the statewide linked repeaters over the three hours we were there.
The staff at the NWS Charleston office are great, welcoming, and appreciative of the amateur radio operators that volunteer there. Always a fun time operating there.
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