Author Archives: Tor

About Tor

"Making Life A Ride"

Aluma T-75XHD tower install

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Aluma T-75XHD tower install:

The tower finally came in, and I didn’t waste any time before starting to dig.

The 6″ hole was dug using a 1 ft bit with two extensions. It got heavy after a while, so used the tractor to lift it up after the bit filled up.

Nice and smooth all the way down.

Again, used the tractor to lift the massive MP2 pole into the hole, and proceeded to level it up.

Nice and level.

A couple of weeks later, and the pole is set completely back-filled and hard-packed all the way up to the surface.Tower carefully strapped underneath the bucket using plenty of wood for support. Yaesu 1000 DXA rotator and mast already installed.

 

 

Beautiful…

Cabinet in place, containing coax poly-phasers, roter control arrestor, and other equipment.

Fully extended to 70 ft.

This was an easy two person job, with the help from my lovely wife. She was doing the supervising. This install was a long time coming. Now for the next stop, getting the Optibeam OB 12-4 yagi installed on top, using a crane. More to come.

9/16/2022: Finally got the crane in to lift the Optibeam up in the air, and bolted onto the nested tower. What a beautiful sight.

Yours truly bolting the antenna to the mast plate.

Now on to digging a trench for pvc, and pull cables.

Business end

Trenched in a few minutes, about a foot deep. 

Started working in the tower cabinet. Connected up the Poly Phasers and the rotor control lightning arrester. Plenty of space in there to add a 4-position coax switch a little later. I added a 120 V feed into the cabinet to enable the use of a 120 V electric winch. Cranking this thing up using a manual worm gear winch that was supplied by Aluma, gets old pretty fast.

Almost done. Need a RatPak antenna switch in there.

All Done….

Optibeam OB 12-4 HF antenna assembled

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Finally got the Optibeam OB 12-4 HF antenna assembled and ready to be installed on a tower. This thing is built like a tank, weighing in at about 140 lbs. 40, 20,15 and 10 meter bands. Can not wait to get this beast installed and up to 75 feet.

25 ft boom, Longest elements are the 40 meter elements at about 50 ft.

 

Getting away from the Swampland

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We decided to get away for 4th of July, and ride up to Virginia to camp and explore some new roads. And boy did we find them. We were out riding Saturday and Sunday. Went back home Monday. Decent weather except for some overnight rain Saturday.

Nice and quiet in camp
A few shots from Mabry Mill

GPS Swap – From a Garmin Navigator 5 to a Zumo XT

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So I decided to get rid of the Navigator 5, which I was using on both bikes. Slow, crashing easy, terrible screen in bright daylight, prone to lead you astray at a minutes notice, and just hard to work with. So I decided to try a Garmin Zumo XT, which is the newest iteration of motorcycle GPS from Garmin.

The XT has a very nice, super-bright screen, which works very good in day / sun light. It looks like the OS has been revamped completely. Evidently it is running an Android OS. Fine with me, as long as it works.

The old Nav 5 was sitting on a OEM Nav mount that came installed on the R1200 GSA as well as the S1000 XR. However, the mount on the XR was not lockable, so re-did the entire mount (basically a new mount including the lock cylinder. I also had to build out the mount enough with spacers behind the mount in order to clear the left side windshield bracket. But I digress.

In order to power the new XT and use it on the original mount as the Nav 5, I went ahead and ordered a conversion plate, 3D printed by a company called Adapter 3D Motorrad, based in Italy. This adapter sits between the original back plate and the XT mounting plate. Since I am using the original mount, the GPS is also locked when in place. They were kind enough to send me an additional lock lever since I was using it on two bikes.

Adapter:

This is the original Nav backplate, with the adapter mounted. The GPS sits on the front square adapter. The GPS will sit a bit off the back plate compared to the original, which is not a big deal. 

Fit right in there. I’ll do a better write-up when I have used it for a while.

 

BMW S1000 XR Brentune Stage 1-3 flash

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Went ahead and pushed up stage 1-3 Brentune flash for my S1000 XR. This something I had been wanting to do for a while. Wow, big difference in every way. More torque, horsepower, smoother quick shift, and a lot more. You load down your original ECU flash down to the handheld, send it to Brentune Moto, and they send back a modified file that is pushed to the bike, again, using the handheld. Good stuff.

Stage 1:

  • Full exhaust flap control for valved exhausts
  • Full recalculation of the ASC torque control for straight line and cornering performance
  • Per-cylinder fuel tuning designed around aftermarket exhaust systems
  • Remapped throttle angles for increased power through the entire RPM range
  • Better power on all fuels leading to higher trap/lap times in testing
  • Smoother idle speeds and fueling for full exhaust
  • Fully recalibrated UP and DOWN shifts for faster quick shifter timing (30% faster over Stage 2)
  • Better cooling and engine prevention in staging lanes idling for drag strip or circuit
  • Early fan-on for better cooling
  • More aggressive and stronger launch control with no launch limit
  • Each cylinder tuned individually for maximum power and reliability
  • Recalibrated knock control to rule out “false knock” caused by engine vibration
  • Recalibrated torque control for all traction control modes (sport, race, slick)
  • Adjustable tire size and TC/ABS per customer request
  • Full AlphaN fueling conversion
  • Secondary air control (block off plate not needed)
  • Transmission gear box limiters raised
  • Factory exhaust control over exhaust valves for more power and better sound
  • Recalibrated intake air temp and coolant temp compensation tables for max performance in all weather conditions
  • Raised load torque limits for additional power
  • Air mass, idle, part/full throttle and Lambda correction maps for all exhausts
  • Ignition mapping optimized for more power
  • Removed 80% WOT (wide open throttle) limiter
  • Adjusted torque model to align with new power of bike and limiter removal
  • Shorter up and downshift dead times for maximum driveability and acceleration
  • Ignition/fuel calculation for maximum performance and response for almost all fuels and race gas

That’s a lot of changes and improvements. and you can certainly feel it when riding. Should have done this long time ago.