The Cement Arrives!
10/5
The inspector came around 10am and gave me the nod. He was even wondering why they bothered to even issue a permit! Anyway, we're all set. The concrete showed up at 11:30. That stuff is a lot more work that I thought it was going to be, but by 12:30 we used 10 yards to fill the hole. The tower didn't move a bit!
After waiting a bit I floated the base and put my daughters' handprints, names, dates, etc. I didn't forget my call sign! Tradition, I guess.
I think the next time I do this I'll use 2x6's on the to keep it off the concrete better as it sits on the form. I think I'm going to have indents where the tower 2x4 supports cross the concrete. Oh well!
10/7
I ordered a 16' 2" OD 1/4" 4130 Chrom-Moly mast from EMJ corp. Including shipping (from Boston, no less!) the cost was around $340. Should arrive at the house in 7-10 days.
10/11
After getting home from a camping trip, I pulled the form off the base. The boards came off very easily, but the ridges left in the concrete by the 2x4 supports for the tower are about 1/2" deep. I'll definitely beef those up and raise them a bit more next time!
10/12
A friend of mine at one of my clients (a large machine tool manufacturer) helped me get the holes drilled in the plates for the rotator and the bearing at the top of the tower. I should have used this as an excuse to get a new drill press…
10/13
A while back I bought some large cable clamps from Home Depot. They are aluminum and accept two cables up to #2/0 and have a flange with a hole for mounting. I drilled the holes out to 3/8" to match the bolt size of the cross-members on the bottom section of the tower. I was concerned about the length of the bolts that came on the tower (3/8 x 1" might not be enough with the added thickness of the cable clamps) so I went to an auto parts store and bought 3 3/8 x 1.5" grade 5 bolts. I removed the bottom-most bolt on the cross-member on each leg and put the longer bolt in, and then the cable clamp on the backside so that it is under the horizontal portion of the cross-member angle. With some Oxgard smeared on the back, I tightened them down really good. Then I stripped and clamped the ground cables coming out of the concrete from the rebar and the other cables that will go directly to the ground rods to the clamp. After tightening them up really good, I completely covered each assembly with coax-seal.
While I was putting the rebar cage together I lost the bolts for a few of the ground rod clamps I was using. It turns out the 3/8 x 1" bolts I took off the tower fit the clamps perfectly!
10/14
I started on the radial and ground rod network today. I dug three 1' deep holes with a post hole digger about three or four feet from each of the tower legs. I also dug a shallow trench from each hole to the concrete base. After driving the rods, I clamped the wire that came out of the cement (from the rebar cage) and the wire coming from the legs to each rod. I buried the trench but left the rod holes open for now - I'll need them again when I dig the trenches for the radials.