ok, uncle ray moving day is set - May 7th

[N3DRB The Derb]

hired the riggers, rented the trailer, riding up there thursday, loading up Friday morning and driving back. I couldn't get a truck with a liftgate, and the ramps were only good to 1000 pounds. I would have had to rent a 22 ft truck to get the vertical clearance needed to stand it upright.

They will just have to rachet tie ray down best they can either standing up or on it's side. got a dozen pads and a 4 wheel appliance dolly and a 12'X18' tarp.

Me and Glo will be back in the area Friday night , deloading to commence Saturday. We may have a lead on some non ham unloading help.

Hopefully I'll be able to get it off the trailer ( it has a 47" wide ramp)  and under cover in due time.

so thats it. game on.

[W3GMS]

Hi Derb,
Good luck with your trip.  I am sure everything will turn out fine.  From what I hear you have some help all lined up when you return. 

Here is a bit of a funny story when Martha and I moved the 1941 Gates 250C1 from upstate NY to our location near Lancaster Pa.  I am sure you will have better luck than we did! 

Well, we decided to use Martha's Chevy truck that was her Dad's in Tennessee.  That's the truck now that is being bead blasted along with a frame off restoration.  It has great sentimental value to her.  At the time we just brought it back from Cookeville, TN.  I tuned it up before leaving and put 4 new tires on it, pulled the drums and checked all the breaks and a bunch of other maintenance stuff.  The truck ran like a top all the way back to PA with no problems at all. 

I built a racks for it in the bed of the track so we could stack the transmitter and on top of it place a mating rack with the exciter, mod monitor and other transmitter accessory items.  It was built extremely strong and was up to the task. 

We left the house to get the beast and about 10 miles into the trip a tractor trailer truck changed lanes while going around a traffic signal and clipped the front of the truck!  We pulled over and exchanged insurance info and the driver was very apologetic.  Our truck was still drivable.  So off again and we were making miles!  We stopped on the PA side of Binghamton, NY along rt 81 for some lunch.  About 5 miles south of Binghamton on rt 81 the truck quit.  Stopped dead in its tracks.  I was able to get it off on the side of the road.  I had my tools and soon discover I had gas but no spark.  I checked the ignition coil for resistance, pulled the rotor and rotor cap off and all looked fine.  I made sure 12V was going to the primary of the coil.  It did not have points so nothing I could check in that department.  I did not have a scope with me.  By putting the multi meter on the AC scale I had no switching action going on at the primary of the ignition coil.  So at that point I called AAA.  About 2 hours later they arrive and towed me to Binghamton.  I asked to be towed to a shop that was close to a U haul place.  It was a Firestone repair place and the guy there were great.  I told them what I had done and I said it was either the ignition module or the pick-up coil at the base of the distributor.  They obtained the ignition module within the next hour or so and as luck would have it, that was not it.  Taking resistance reading on the pick-up coil showed the coil to be the problem.  That was at the base of the distributor and hence, the distributor had to be pulled.  They said they don't replace the pick-ups but put rebuilt distributors in and they could not get that part until Monday and it was then Saturday and we agreed to pick up the transmitter in Penn Yen on Sunday!  So off to the U Haul place across the street.  I asked if they had a truck we could rent.  The guy said "nope".  I asked it they could call another U Haul place and they said "nope they can't and stated they won't rent you a truck one way".  The guy was a real PIA.  As we were leaving they said wait a minute, I will call them.  He called a place about 7 miles out and sure enough they had only a big box truck.  It was probably a 22' box truck.  I asked the guy at the first U Haul if they could bring the truck down to were we were.  He said "nope".  You need to get a taxi.  Well the guy that was working on the truck at the Firestone garage offered to take us along with all our tools up to the U Haul place 7 miles away.  He said it was on his way home anyway and at that point it was about 4:45.  He had a pick-up so he said put all your tools and stuff in the back of my pick-up.  At that point it started to rain very heavily.  That meant our stuff was getting soaked in the back of his open pick-up including our duffel bags that had our cloths!  We got to the second U haul place and picked up the large box truck and transferred our stuff into the box truck. 
We arrived in Canandaigua at about 9PM that night right on schedule to pick the transmitter up the following morning at 10AM.  Fortunately, the return trip was uneventful.  The next weekend we had to drive back to Binghamton to pick up Martha's truck. 
It was a very expensive trip but we succeeded and nobody got hurt! 

Regards,
Joe, W3GMS   

[WA3VJB]

WOW Joe, that's a long and winding road for that Gates.
Crazy but funny in retrospect.

I think my most unexpected encounter among transmitter rescues was with bad weather in upstate New York.

Steve/HUZ and I had rented a Ryder truck to get not one but two GE BT-20A transmitters, one from Syracuse and the other from Utica, not far away.

It was early 1992 and the truck we rented had street tires, not Mud & Snow tread, because in Maryland the snow season was long past.

Transmitter No. 1 came from Armstrong, a very easy loadup and lashdown.

Transmitter No. 2 came from a very run-down doghouse at the side of some railroad tracks, in a swamp, where WUTQ had their transmitter "hut."

First, figure out how to get a Ryder truck into position. Next, figure out how to get the transmitter out of the hut. This involved a CHAIN and using the truck to tow the transmitter on its side up a small hill where we could reposition it for loading.

Then the snows came.

We fortunately were staying at the House of Sinan, that TimTron used to call the PissWeak Hotel. Sinan is the proprietor of Armstrong Transmitter where Timmy worked and where the GE BT20A was located, not far from Gary INR's place.

So, we spent an unexpected extra night there until the roads could be cleared enough to get back to Maryland, which we did.

[N3DRB The Derb]

Great story, Joe    but I am hoping i wont have a story of my own to tell other than that everything went well and that Ray is at least home with me in some manner. In a while they'll be blasting me in my head again and I wont be able to go get him. It's now or never, as teh song says.

I can always hire help to get it off the trailer at this end. My garage door is much higher than Fred's. it would have taken a 22 ft box truck to have enough clearance in the box to load him vertical. I just couldnt see doing that, vs towing with the Ram which has the full towing package , mirrors, lights brake hookup and a class III hitch already on it. When the wifey moved down here we hauled a 5X8 cargo trailer loaded with everything she owned. Didnt even feel like we were towing anything.

i think that by the time it's all over Ray will have cost more to transport than purchase in the first place.  

[W3GMS]

Hi Paul,
I guess we all have those kind of stories to tell.  Its amazing what we go through to hall the big stuff home!  Our trip just about broke our patience but in the end we got it moved on time but way over budget!  It restores confidence in strangers since a lot of folks helped along the way.  The Firestone guy was really helpfull. 

Derb,
I am sure you will do fine moving the beast.  Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and do it.  If you think to much you will say this is nuts and not do it.  You just deal with the problems as they come up. 
I am sure you have some local Hams in your area that will give you a hand when you get the transmitter to your place. 

I paid 1300 buck for the 250C1 fully restored.  I spent nearly that much to move it with the truck cost and gas plus getting Martha truck fixed. 

Make it a fun trip and take lots of pictures!

Joe, W3GMS 

[N3DRB The Derb]

I will, taking still and video up to fred's and back.

Joe you know one of my big weaknesses, i overanalyze everything, thereby making those around me be illin until I overdose on "what if's " and pass out.   

[flintstone mop]

There will be some good hands and thinking and we will get Ray on DERB's whatever FRI May 7.

Phred

[WBear2GCR]

Derb,

Bring a sheet of plywood with you on that trailer!

a transmitter laying down on a moving blanket on top of a sheet of plywood, on top of several moving blankets
is both stable and very well isolated from the road!!

standing up on the trailer? Probably not as safe as laying down, imo.

just the wind and wind load at highway speeds is very high, and I wouldn't want a sail standing up with
that much mass to control...

                _-_-bear

[N3DRB The Derb]

my guess is it will get tipped on it's left side on the trailer since thats where the previous shipping damage is and I dont want any more elsewhere. I highly doubt they'll rig it standing up. I just dont see how.