It's 104 today, so sweat band and wet neck towell in use!

Prior to tower project, 44 ft fiberglass poles hold up a G5RV non-resonant dipole at the WB7CNV/WA7DUH residence.

Rebar grid construction for tower base.

Holes for guy station anchors are 6ft long,4 ft wide and 4 ft deep. Concrete blocks are used to hold the rebar cage up off the bottom 6 inches so they are embedded in concrete when poured. Painted lines indicate the level of concrete when poured.

This cart has a dump function, which really helps unloading!

Linda WB7CNV cut about 450 tie wires for the tower base and 3 guy station rebar cages.

The break wasn't so bad. The mess was created when the sprinkler controller decided to turn the water on, washed out the far bank and filled the hole. Duhhhh.

Trying to fix a cave in. Sandy soil.

Benton County exemption from Benton County Code (BCC) 11.65 Communications Facilities that is really aimed at commercial installations such as TV/Radio stations or cell towers. However, this exemption did not remove the requirement for a building permit, structural analysis and original drawings with original (not copy) signature/stamp of Wash. State licensed Professional Engineer. Tower manufacturer's analysis and drawings were not acceptable (not original or Wash. licensed).

Also, county building dept. wanted to impose most of the requirements of BCC 11.65 anyway "for your and neighbor's protection". We battled several issues.

Yikes-- hit the sprinkler pipes. Anyone know a good way to find these sub-surface?

Guy station base ready to be lowered into a guy station hole. Guy station blocks are buried about 4 feet down, so only half the dirt is hauled away. The pile in the background is what goes back in to cover it up.

The engineered specs call for #7 rebar (7/8"). Are we holding up a 2000 ft TV station antenna?

Diagonal rebar wires are used to keep the grid square.

The guy rods have 6 x 6 x 1/2 in steel plates to keep them from pulling out of the concrete guy station blocks. Picture shows drilling the 3/4 in holes for the rods. I need a slower turning drill press.

Originally tried to lift rebar cage from a single point, but it caused the rebar cage to deform. A lifting frame was then built which pulled up vertical instead of an angle.

Lower painted line marks the height of the concrete.

One of three rebar cages for guy stations. Each guy station consists of a reinforced block of concrete 6ft x 4ft x 2ft high buried 4 ft below grade. That long 3/4 in rod is what the guy lines are tied to, and is buried in the concrete block. Each rod will sustain at least 8000 lbs of pull, which is about 4X overkill, since the worst case forces with an 88 mph wind is calculated to be 1000 lbs. Building code in Benton Co. requires survival of 88 mph winds.

Tower base hole as specificed will be 4ft x 4ft x 5ft deep. 1st 6 inches is gravel and sand for moisture drainage, followed by 4 cement blocks that hold the bottom rebar grid up into the poured concrete. Tower base legs stick down into the gravel/sand (below the concrete so as to drain any water that may form in the tower legs. Another rebar grid will be embedded in the poured concrete 42 inches above the bottom grid seen in the picture.

Basic process when digging all the holes-- dirt goes in the cart, Linda (WB7CNV) hauls away.

Adam loves Jessica Kabota.

Yes, the droop is normal. Note the middle driven element has not been installed in this picture. The tree has to be removed.

Mast installed is 2 inch high strength galvanized steel about 8 feet long.

The #4 solid wire and the copper strap is also run to the house electrical ground and into the ham shack entrance.

Assembling an inner guide and support tube that is slid into the large end of the element tubes to provide a consistent diameter for the beryllium tape that must slide in and out.

A completed element. 30M & 40M beam operation is achieved by pushing the beryllium tape through the sweep and down the "return" side, creating a resonant folded element. Thus these elements are only 40 feet wide instead of the 62 feet that would be required if they where straight out.

Director element EHU and element return fixture.

Rubber boots hold the elements into the EHU sockets.

The tower base hole. 2x4's above the forms hold up and align the top rebar grid. There is also lower grid sitting on concrete blocks. The tower base that will be submerged in concrete floats in the center of both the top and bottom rebar grids. Temporary guy ropes hold the tower in perfect plumb. Grandson Adam approves.

A better view of the rebar cage.

How is this supposed to go???

Rebar cage for guy station is lowered onto concrete blocks that elevate up off the bottom.

It looks like coax in this picture, but it is Phillystran, a non-conductive arimid fiber guy wire. Good for about 4,000 lbs pull.

After assembling 1 of the active elements on the grass by the tower in about 3 hours, assembly was moved into Steve & Linda's shop where an assembly line could be set up, as there are 6 of these to make. Time was reduced to about 1 hour per unit.

Many parts to each unit..

Boom joiner on the SteppIR Dream Beam DB18E). Colored dots on the pieces helps the assembler to find and line up the proper pieces.

A view of the trench heading down to the ham shack. That white bottle in the picture is copper anti-seize/anti-corrosion goop that is used liberally on ALL copper-to-copper connections.