There's a Hole at the Bottom of the Sea...

So... to have a Rohn 25G based tower be self supporting, you have to pour a very substantial footing.  With 25G, you can go up to 40ft in a self supporting configuration, and I really hate guy wires.  On the other hand, a footing for a self supporting 25G tower is 4'x4'x4'.  Initially, this didn't sound like a big deal.  Four feet just doesn't seem like that much in theory.  In practice, 2.5 cubic yards of dirt takes a lot of time to dig by hand.

Scott in the hole -- "This has gotta be 4 ft!"

I started the hole a couple of weeks ago, and got about 2.5 ft down into the ground.  It was disheartening when I first measured the depth thinking it was around 4 ft, and I was barely half way done.  My friends Scott and Chris helped me on Sunday with some of the digging and we made some pretty substantial progress.  There are a couple of problems with such an endeavor.  First, it's hard to maneuver in such a small hole.  Make sure you have short tools or small people to dig (child labor!).  Second is just the difficulties of getting a 6' 230lb guy into and out of the hole to dig.  Luckily I only have to do this once.

So, I'm hoping that I can get the hole dug in the next week or so, and we can get things prepped for a pour.

The other progress that I made is obtaining the rebar for the footing.  Unfortunately, Rohn calls for #7 rebar, which is 7/8" in diameter.  Nobody around Corvallis stocks this, because it's fairly large stuff.  I ended up getting the rebar from Farwest Steel in Eugene.  It was around $75 for 18 pieces of 4' #7 rebar.  Not too bad for 150 lbs of steel.

Partially painted tower section

I also went up to Seattle to pick up the rest of the tower sections from the MicroHAMS guys.  They have graciously donated 4 sections of Rohn 25G that they had laying around.  I'm very grateful to them for their generous donation.  They required a bit of cleanup, and I got them hosed down and scrubbed off a bit.  They still need to get some attention from Scotchbrite and painted.  I have one of the sections almost done, and after I finish the hole I'll work on the rest.  Rodda paint in Salem had some aviation white tower steel paint.  The specification sheet is here:  http://www.roddapaint.com/professional/product-data/31114.aspx  They had it in stock in Salem, so give them a call if you need some.  Notice they have Aviation Orange as well if you need to paint up your tower to be FAA compliant.  It's not exactly cheap at $60 a gallon, but I want to get things done correctly as possible the first time.

Scott also cut down the bottom section that I purchased from a guy in Corvallis.  This is going to be the section that's embedded in the concrete pad.  I don't have any details on the cutting process, but he said he just used an angle grinder.  It's good to have friends to help you out with the physical labor and construction processes.

The receive antenna is on order as well, and should be shipped in a week or so.  I'm also waiting on my Tait T800 supplier to finish reconditioning the repeater.  I'm hoping to head to Boise next week to pick that thing up.  The ORRC is going to meet on August 8th in LaGrande, so I plan on trying to be there to answer any questions with our application for coordination.

So, things are progressing, but always more slowly than one would want.  Things are coming together, and I'm hoping to have the repeater operational sometime in September before monsoon season starts.