Joe & I were in Saluda yesterday, doing ye olde “diggin in the dirt” for client K0COP, who has a mountain retreat type QTH up there, from his Aiken SC home. His neighbor scooped out the base hole, apparently using a 3-ft bucket on the backhoe, which of course, gave us a slightly larger-than-needed base–about 5X5. And they encountered some of that wonderful NC granite down there, which made leveling the bottom & squaring up the sides total fun by hand. Then we had to crib up the base burial section using concrete blocks, as the hole was over 5 ft deep. Took a bit longer than anticipated, but we were able to secure everything with some SaKrete, ready for today’s pour, which will be done by a local crew, who visited while we were there, assuring me they understand the needs for a good tower base.
Without the sun’s presence, things would have been really cold & nasty, I’m afraid, with a constant 20MPH windspeed.
In 30 days of so, when the concrete has cured, we’ll be back to install the 40 ft of 55G (unguyed) & his new F-12 C-3.
In the interim, have to build a standoff arm for a G-6 vertical, & prep some Heliax.
Of to K4SQR’s today, to hopefully repair his T-12 Log Periodic in the air. If not, we’ll have to bring it to ground, then go
back up. This time, we’ll use the capstan winch, so we won’t need a huge crew of ground personnel. (Jim’s antenna has suffered the common LP failure–the reflector tip has broken off. The machine screw drilled THROUGH the tiny
3/8-inch element weakens it enough so that it finally fails in the winds….)
stay tuned…
