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Some of the residue from the epoxy remained so each upright bold had to be cleaned. Buzz Davis busy grinding away, preparing them. Photo by Lamb, WA6BRW |
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 It's just the beginning. Atop Figueroa mountain, five volunteers begin the tower rebuilding process. Shown are l/r Roy Ellis, W6QJ; Buzz Davis, KE6BQC; Al Hess, KD6DYZ; Dave Lamb, WA6BRW; and Randy Oberg, KD6GIK, with his back to the camera, lifting up the first tower section on to the new base Randy has constructed at his machine shop. Photo by Myberg |
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The tower section weighed close to 400 pounds. And this was only one of them. It definitely presented a challenge to the five ARES/SYVARRG personnel who chose to get up at 5 a.m. that Wednesday morning. Our job, set the base on the existing concrete slab and then mount the first tower section.
The five of us began some basic preparations for the tower section mounting. We cleaned the threads on the 16" long bolts buried in the slab, sanded off the spilled epoxy residue around each bolt, drilled the last hole for the mounting and worked some on the under part of the new, heavy base Randy had designed and built.
We finally secured the base to the existing slab. We poured this slab back in September of 1995. The heavy bolts were secured with a long 30" socket wrench with plenty of torque. Those "little babies" will not work loose, I can assure you.
Next we positioned the first tower section so it could be raised to the new base. Randy bent some long bolts which he fastened loosely to the tower and to a couple of bolts on the base, to help guide the lower end as we pulled it up. We were ok until we had it up about 20 degrees, then the weight was too much for us.
Randy then threw a rope over the building and fastened it to his truck hoist. I got on the switch and, at their command, began to slowly tighten the rope until the tower began to rise. The other four were guiding it up, continually making sure the base set down correctly. This was no easy feat. That section was heavy! We finally got it secured and ready for the next section and antennas.
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