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[IRCA] retirement / move / antennas

IRCA,
This is almost a reintro as I have not been very active the last few years. Between a long commute and long hours at work, added to 2 back surgeries I have had little time.
I am finally now living in a place I can have all the antennas I can afford.
I moved from the San Francisco Bay area to a small house in Boone Iowa in 2004. I retired three years ago (unix / network / application support) and began the hunt for a more suitable place to live now that I did not have to worry about how far I was from work. We hunted for a year. My wife wanted a larger garden and I wanted more room for larger, better antennas. We both wanted more privacy. After a year of hunting we both got what we wanted. A bonus for me low noise level, nearest neighbor is 1/4 of a mile away, next nearest is close to 3/4 of a mile)
It has taken me 2 years to move, sell the old place and do some repairs and additions to the new place (it did not have a garage). It had a 42 x 73 foot machine shed for parking combines, but the doors weigh about 400 pounds and can be difficult in the winter. We have 5.2 acres some of which we rent to the farmer who farms the 70 acres behind us. He has told me I can run beverages across the fields in the winter after harvest as long as I take them down in the spring before planting.
I spent the last two summers working on antennas. We had a bad hail storm last March (golf ball sized hail driven by 60 MPH winds) $29K worth of damage in about 10 minutes. It undid some of my work.
It was a race this summer to finish all my antennas before winter. I just made it. It was -15.8F just before sunrise this morning.
I now have antennas up for all the HF ham bands and I have spent the last few days refurbishing my beloved Sanserino Loop. Got it up this afternoon thanks to help from several IRCA members. Thank You all. I hope to also use it on 160M, along with a BOG or two.
See www.qrz.com put my callsign ng0g  in the little search window in the upper left hand corner. Scroll down below the bio for photos of antennas that include views of some of our new place. 

Good to be back up and at the dials.

Steve

--
Stephen Hawkins NG0G
ng0g@xxxxxxxx
73 49 111 01001001



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