On February 11th of 2009 the National Weather Service put out a high wind warning for the entire Western PA area. Actual wind measurements were taken as high as 92 MPH! For the most part wind gusts where measured in the area between 50 to 60 MPH. Unfortunately that main thrust of extra high wind went right though our clubhouse grounds. The road leading to our clubhouse was cut off by downed trees, telephone poles and debris for two days. When we were able to get to the clubhouse we were greeted by the sight of our main 100 foot tower bent over into the woods. There were four large trees uprooted, our long-boom 2 meter beam was bent in half, our mail box was crushed, a picnic table flattened, a section of shingles ripped off of our new roof and debris everywhere. The tower that bent held our nice new repeater antenna along with our APRS and other antennas. Power was out and the temperature was dropping.

Thanks to the utility company crews our power and phone lines were restored and we didn’t run into any frozen pipe problems, we were thankful. We were also thankful that the situation wasn’t worse. Our building survived well except for the section of shingles, we didn’t lose any other towers and the uprooted trees missed other parts of our grounds such as the pavilion. One tree did hit the guy wires for the 100 foot tower and that is what caused it to fold over. The situation could have been much worse!

Our first order of business was to repair the roof of the clubhouse and clear all the fallen trees. Thanks to the fantastic effort of MANY of our members the grounds are almost all cleaned up. Special thanks to Kristen, KZ3Y and Bob, AG3U for coming out in the extreme cold to patch the roof. Also on the Saturday after that we had a major work party to cut the trees up and burn the branches.

Enter the Skyview Chain Saw Massacre!

We had 4 chainsaws going at the same time! Larry, AB3ER towed his tractor to the club to help move heavy logs and bundles of branches to the fire pit. We were able to remove the root balls and drag them over to the woods and out of the way. We had a great crew on hand and we accomplished a tremendous amount of work that day. We got our new mail box installed! We must keep those QSL cards coming! Later in the day we removed another tower that had severe rust on the base and was unsafe.

You can’t have all these folks working hard without feeding them! We had a fine lunch consisting of burgers on the Skyview grill and delicious wedding soup thanks to Lou, N3TYP! At Skyview, we don’t like to suffer too much… hi

Since this all occurred we had to change our priorities all around for what we plan to do this summer. It looks like we will be in tower erection mode, big time. We will take this (Opportunity) to reevaluate our tower situation and plan for the future of Skyview by renewing our communications capabilities. More trees will come down and new towers will go up. With the tremendous help from our members and friends of the club we will be back, better than ever.

We can’t thank enough all the people that helped out both with work and with financial contributions. There is no way we could do it with out you. We’ve also started a tower recovery fund for those that would like to help out. Your donations are very much appreciated and put to very efficient use.

Stay tuned to this page for the next steps in our recovery efforts.

Pictures by Bob, K3RMB and Bob, WC3O

Last Update April 6, 2009