KZDC is a 4 tower DA serving San Antonio. KZDC is now (or at
least had been) operating with separate DAD & DAN sites. This
site is a new build and may end up being the combined DA operation
for both modes.
For some reason, brush GRINDING has came into vogue around larger
cities. It is a good way to clean up an area quickly but IS
NOT suitable for clearing the site of a future AM station. The
grinding machine simply devours all trees, brush, etc and leaves
behind scattered debris, solid stumps and roots. The debris
size will range from toothpicks to saw logs. All of the
debris, stumps, etc are serious impediments to building an AM ground
system. The client realized their error and brought a "root
rake" machine to the site. This particular piece of equipment
is mounted on a small dozer and simply plows thru the soil
collecting stumps, roots and other debris. This didn't leave
the site as clean as if it had been properly bull dozed, but it
ended up being quite workable.
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On this project we used AGSC's John Deere 4600 and Tadly Boucher's (pronounced in the French fashion as "Boo-SHAY") (aka Max Stancel Methvin, III) (aka Tad Methvin) Kubota 4wd. The backhoe in the background was rented by another contractor. |
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The transmitter building. |
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Debris left by the grinder. This mess will gather up around the plow and force it up in the air. Obviously this greatly complicates construction efforts. |
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Tad, Steve and Jeremy doing what they do best... |
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The 8in strap around the pier. All radials are solidly bonded to the outside (away from the pier)1/3rd of this wide strap. The screen is then bonded to the inside 1/3rd (toward pier). This method leaves a smooth surface with plenty of room to carefully braze down the screen. |
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Big Bird with the rented SUV sitting next door. They became great friends. |
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Tractor Drag Race... Ground Plow Nationals... |
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Clamping the screen down to the 2in bridling strap. We use 2 in strap between the screen sections to provide a solid electrical and mechanical bond back to the tower base. |
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The 2in bridling strap is bonded back to the main tower base ground point. In this case, the bridling strap is to be bonded to one of the 4in ground rod straps. |
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Brazing the screen to the strap. |
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Clamping and brazing the intersected radials to the transverse strap. |
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The tower base with the screen installed. |
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The arc gap with strap directly attached. |
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Provisional strap for ATU mounting. |
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Radials clamped to the transverse strap. |
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Steve brazing the strap to arc gap. |
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Cutting off a ground rod. There was a layer of rock or other impenetrable material down about 7ft. The rods would hit this and simply stop. The rod will shortly be directly brazed to the heavy 4in strap exiting this picture to the left. |
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Tadly getting high sniffing fermented prickly pear... |
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