WMBG received an offer that they couldn't refuse. A developer
wanted their property to expand a retail and housing area.
WMBG wanted a new transmitter site. The developer wanted the
property badly and the station received an nice shiny new
transmitter site. This site was properly cleared and leveled.
There was a small area of protected wetland but the proper permits
were secured to allow minor encroachment into it. The rest of
the site was flat to rolling and should prove to be a nice site for
many years.
As is almost expected... We arrived on the exact date that
had been scheduled weeks before and found that another
contractor still had open ditches and exposed conduits. The
tower erector (another subcontractor) wasn't thru mounting
isocouplers or tower light wiring. The tower light power was
laying on the ground across the site. No big deal. We
have gotten accustomed to finishing other contractors work.
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Hmmm... I wonder what those piles of dirt mean? |
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Look closely at this image. See anything odd? The cables come down from the hot tower on the left, thru coax clamps (grounded), and then on to the Isocouplers. |
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Look closely again... Does the Austin Ring transformer look a little unusual? |
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One of the grounded cable clamps BEFORE reaching the isocoupler. |
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We backfilled the open trenches and prepared the area for our work. |
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Hmmm. I thought that we backfilled and graded that yesterday... Oh. They forgot to run conduits to the ATU and tower lights... |
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This generator pad was buried under a dirt pile. |
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The site soil was sandy silt and was very easily eroded. |
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The plowing is mostly done. |
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The trenches have finally been backfilled, the radials finished and completely covered. Another contractor was scheduled to install weed block fabric in a week or so. |
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The large base insulator with arc gap. The rods visible running up the sides of the insulator are support rods that will eventually be removed. They provide support during construction to protect against uneven loading of the ceramic. |
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A strap was installed into the new transmitter building. The cable entry bulkhead was grounded to it as well as the transmitter rack and other equipment. |
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The strap junction behind the transmitter rack. |
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The radials finished and completely covered |
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Wonder where that large chunk of concrete came from? The tower crew mistakenly poured the base pier about 30ft from it's intended location. They used some sort of machine to break it into pieces and hid them just below the soil surface. I broke the plow on this... |
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