WYHL

Meridian, MS 

July 2007

WYHL is a 1kw ND station serving Meridian.  It was locally owned for many years and then acquired by one of the major radio corps in a combo deal for the associated FM.  Being a minor player in the local market, it was mostly ignored by various owners and had fallen into very poor condition.  It had recently been purchased by Urban Radio in a mulit-station deal.

A large fire ant nest had appeared directly in front of the TX building door.  Someone had simply laid a wooden pallet across it rather than kill it. The nest eventually covered the steps entering the building and grew to almost the height of the door threshold.  While cleaning out around the building, we discovered the ant mound and then shortly the concrete steps.  A little cleanup work with the tractor, a bag of fire ant bait and amazingly the building was accessible again.   

Large pine and hardwood trees had been allowed to encroach onto the ground system.  The encroaching vegetation was cleared back by grinding machine which IS NOT a suitable method for clearing a ground field if a new GS will be installed.  We were able to plow about a third of the site before getting into the thick stumps and debris left from the grinding process.  At that point, we had to stop plowing and clean up the mess left by the grinder.  The site was cleaned and a new GS successfully constructed.  We later tuned the tower and submitted an impedance sweep for FCC submittal.

The site appeared to be very clean when we arrived. Appearances can be deceiving.

The site had been cleared using a grinding machine. The stumps noted in this and following images were ground down to grade level. The grinder literally devours the tree, brush, etc and leaves all stumps, roots and debris on the ground.

We pushed up huge piles of the debris left from the grinding process. These debris range in size from toothpicks to 8ft long logs. The debris will collect around the plow and force it up out of the ground. The plow will hang on the roots and stumps. IF we are lucky, we won't break the plow when hitting the underground obstructions.

One of the piles of debris.

The exposed area of the radials are covered up to the tower base.

The first run of landscape fabric and gravel.

The screen, bridling strap and main tower base grounding.

All fabric and gravel down.

This tree was allowed to grow up beside one of the guy anchors.

The tree was approximately 16in across at the ground. Notice the turnbuckles bent around the stump.

The site had numerous piles of junk and debris scattered around. This pile of shingles was at least a truck load. We cleaned up the junk and debris such that the site could be more easily maintained in the future.

Fire Ants had built a mount that completely covered the steps up the to level of the door. Someone had simply laid a wooden pallet across the mound instead of killing it. We dug the mound out, cleaned up the steps and spread fire ant bait.

Still cleaning up wood debris.