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Hey folks, Today was awesome! I did a final climb on the Grapevine tower to remove antennas and then it was brought down. Ole ironsides resisted demolition all the way to the end! I hope everybody is doing well and still interested in amateur radio. During drive time I can be usually found on the North Central Texas Connection network. www.nctc.info I am going to keep the reflector alive in case somebody wants to bring the ERS back to life. 73 de w5 Good Mechanic

Hey folks, I have given 444.850 to the NCTC (www.nctc.info) for their Keller tower. David Stephens KB5WB should be deploying a repeater pretty soon and it will be connected to the network. The PL should remain 110.9 I'll post when it is up so folks can test, Jay- W5 Good Mechanic.

Folks, I need help getting the last 3 antennas off the grapevine tower. I don't think it will take long. Is anybody available this Sunday 12/22/2024? I really need 2 ground guys -- I think I can manhandle the antennas myself, although a co-climber would be nice.

Folks, Yesterday was a HUGE success! Several antennas and multiple feedlines were removed from the tower. This WOULD NOT have been possible without the help of my co-climber Tod Farrell WE5TR. Once we were up top, it was obvious that the task at hand was more difficult than expected with rusty and painted over hardware. In the interest of safety Tod had to descend early to insure he had the energy to make it down. I too was right at muscle failure but pressed on as there were several loose feedlines that needed to be sent down. All in all, we recovered 5 feedlines and 2 db-420's There is still more to do -- There are several antenna mounts and 3 more antennas and 3 feedines to remove. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and a date can be chosen to get this done. I want to thank all the helpers on this project! Paul Allred W5PCA -- providing some additional rigging equipment that was especially helpful in the recovery of the 1-5/8 hardline Alan Cerano KD5GTT for manpower and saving the day with the loan of a spare trailer tire when one of mine decided to not hold air anymore. Andrew Koenig KE5GDB-- heavy ground lifting and cable rolling Pictures were taken of this monumental effort. I hope some can be posted to this thread soon. 73, Jay W5GM

Folks, Just a quick poll, How many of you are on HamShack Hotline/. https://wiki.hamshackhotline.com/doku.php?id=start

ERSians, Well snap. No climbers on the list? How about this -- Is anybody interested / available for ground crew work? I need to remove several antennas and feedlines. Date is TBD... Jay - w5gm

ERSians, Perhaps you wondered about my tower climbing posts.. What is going on? Welll---- That fateful time has arrived to pull the plug on 444.850. The old Rockledge/Grapevine tower is going to be taken down. Texas Parks and Wildlife removed their equipment some time ago as they join the DPS statewide trunk system. I have decided to remove all the gear / feedlines / antennas while the weather is nicer and help is available. I am in talks with the Denton County Amateur Radio Assn. on a possible replacement site replacement and addition of 4.85 to the resource pool. So the bottom line is 444.850 will be temporarily QRT as these things get worked out. Stay tuned for more details...

hey folks, It's been awhile since I posted here.. Are there any tower climbers subscribed? There are several antennas on the Grapevine tower that need to come down and be returned to their respective owners. There are also several feedlines that need to come down as well.

Don't know how many are still around to participate, but I'd like to propose a "brown-bag" lunch of the surviving ERS'ers on Saturday at the hamfest. That means "bring whatever you'd like to eat for lunch" and we'll gather somewhere onsite around noonish. (In the past, onsite food has been a hassle.) The published schedule shows a one-hour break from 1200 to 1300, so we should be able to meet, greet, and eat in that time. RSVP here, and if there's a quorum, I'll start looking for a site (in the past, we've found a balcony, or an outdoor porch.) Plus, we should coordinate a frequency to connect via our HTs (you WILL be packing an HT, won't you?) Regards and 73, John DE K5JY

I just had to forward this.. It's just a shame they didn't add "credits" by filming some index cards or something. https://youtu.be/OUZTRcK7P-4 From SMU’s Jones Film Archive - newsreel footage of Dallas Amateur Radio Club during a 1960’s communications exercise _._,_._,_

Hello all, this is to notify you all that I have moved to Colorado Springs. I will miss talking to you all on the N5ERS. Y’all were my first repeater while starting from a 5W HT with a mag mount to a substantially better 50W all band. I spent many a morning and afternoon talking to you all oblong the way to my destination. I will always remember Jay W5GM and Joe N3JI telling me I need “another kilometer or kilowatt” when I got a dead spot. I actually now have about 1.8Km more altitude. Still working on the Kilowatt though. hope to catch y’all on HF sometime perhaps. Jonathan, AG5HV

They found a home. If it doesn’t work out, I will be back.

Hey ERSians, It has been awhile since I posted. First, I want to thank and congratulate the team that lit up N5ERS for FD2021!! I just saw the score in this months ARRL journal. Great effort and awesome result! AREDN update: All AREDN equipment has been shut down at the Grapevine site to conserve battery power. I don't think anybody was using it anyway. One of the 180deg rocket panels was dead and not powering up. I need to do a climb to pull a few antennas down at some point before the ice hits. There are also several fried solar panels on top of the shelter that I need to yank as well. Everything else seems to be pretty status quo. I just saw this on the rene bates auction site. Do you need a ham radio man cave? https://www.renebates.com/a_lot_2.php?id=138&lot=533&cat=22

Hey ERSians, I visited the grapevine repeater site this afternoon to investigate the carrier squelch issue on the 4.85 machine. I discovered that the logic line out of the repeater for PL detect has gone open. My temporary / permanent fix was to reprogram the repeater to exert pl detect on the COR line instead. I really don't see any legitimate reason to run open squelch. The last several weeks have proven that out. 850 should be really quiet now.. No more noise bursts or other crapola! jay w5gm

Fry's -- see https://www.dallasnews.com/business/retail/2021/02/24/frys-electronics-shuts-down-operations/ It's been awhile since I've been in one, but I was one of those who asked if they were shutting down, based on the empty shelves. The salesperson assured me that they were just getting ready to remodel. That's what I loved about their personnel -- they were so knowledgeable <NOT>. Pretty soon there won't be any place to just wander the aisles and wonder how you could justify stuff (like guys can do at hardware stores.) 73, John DE K5JY