In April 2004 i went on a trip to the USA to purchase the towers and aluminium tubing required to make a start on my contest station.

Myself, GM3POI Clive and MM0GKB Kenny went over to stay with Vic N4TO in Florida where we spent 10 days dismantling and packing nearly 400ft of AB-105 tower section ready for the trip across the atlantic to Orkney.  A huge task but thanks to the kind help from Vic N4TO, Dale W4QM and Fred K4LQ we finished with 3 days to spare before having to return home to the UK.

As you can see from the photographs the tower section was already constructed in 10' sections so we had to unbolt everything and bundle it up into managable lengths for shipping, also included in the sale were 3/4'' hardline coax and various lengths of aluminium tubing ranging from 6' down to 1/4' dia so we had the task of slotting bundles of tube into each other so as to reduce the bulk for shipping.

The Florida sunshine made this task more bareable and a great time was had by all. Although being a native Orkney Islander a little LESS sunshine would have been prefared !!