As many know the NK7U contest station has been a powerhouse from the PNW for many, many years. It's website, maintained by Scott K7ZO, has noted the progress of this award winning station for many years. As many contest ops have heard, Joe is at that point in life (many of us are) where there are other priorities which preclude the constant maintenance and fine tuning a multi-tower, multi-monobander station requires. Joe and Sharon now spend most of the year away from the Baker City, Oregon home of the NK7U station. Simply put, it was his decision to take the station down and dispose of the towers, yagis and other equipment Joe has acquired since he and I worked our first contest together in the 1970's. For years I traveled from my home in CA to NE Oregon to operate at NK7U in major contests. 15 1/2 years ago we moved to Baker City and for some time now the NK7U station has been literally next door. It is with mixed feelings (not as mixed as Joe's I'm sure) that I watch daily as one yagi after another and then one tower after another come down with the mega station many of us enjoyed operating to be no more. The photo shows Joe (highest up) and a crew member as they prepare another tower for yagi removal. Joe has always done ALL of his own work on the tower. This is the one and only time I can ever recall having him allow anyone other than himself to climb any of his towers. I have to hand it to Joe. We are the same age and while I once could and would climb anything over about 30 feet these days gives me vertigo.
Sad to see such an iconic installation dismantled. However, it would be worse to have it fall down or have to be scrapped due to neglect. At least this way, the parts may be reused somewhere else.
