HIDARG - PHOTOS  Sharps Ridge Construction Site

Form laid out, long part runs North South.

Friday July 6th. Structural screen and blocks in place.Contrary to popular rumor the wet spots are not where some unknown worker took care of business.

Cement poured and getting screed off.

Sat morning. Covered up and rebar in place.

Jeff KE7ACY and Mike AD7GC prepping things out. Notice the truck it has 20 90lb bags of cement.

Max KF7MAX and Jeff working on the first course.

In case your wondering how we mix the mortar, you put the mix in the bucket and kick it around for awhile. Because of the heat of the day, we had to make small batches and continually adjust the mortar mix.

Second course going on... OOPS...what's that block laid sideways...its the vent on the south wall. Will be screened and covered to keep the critters and rain out.

Tom Sharp K7COW talking to Jeff. Notice the bags of cement in the truck. I mentioned those before. Before Tom left he took it upon himself to unload the truck of all 20 90lb bags for us. Good thing, after a full day on Sat the crew was pretty beat up.

Jeff and Mike kicking the bucket back and forth. We did this to also mix cement to go down the walls where the rebar goes through each course.

Sundays work completed. Four courses down, we will be back to finish up when we can.

Max's phone died..so start up the generator and plug in the charger for about a 1/2hr. Bit noisy but worked.

Cleanup of the tools and such. Before heading out.

We did take the occasional break to raid the cooler, and eat. Temps were in the mid to upper 80s the two days we worked.

SEPT-21st OK It has been a number of weeks since we were on site. Time to get'er done. We have our short blocks in to frame the door

Walt WA7VGR showed up to help a bit. We really appreciated that.Temps were a bit lower this week from the last time we were here.

Seven courses down, and five more to go...at this time we were still committed to going a full 12.

Used Mikes very cool ladder as scaffolding to make the work a bit easier. We would have been lost without it.

Working on course nine late Sat. Taking much longer to do, and as we get higher it really delays the work.

This pretty much wrapped it up for this weekend, We have nine courses down. Time to come back the next week and finish it up.

Sept-28th. We have ten courses down. At this time we decided that was going to be as far as we would go. We discussed our options and it became clear that if we wanted to get a roof on this weekend, and a door end this would be it. So we spent the extra time filling the walls with concrete and placing metal tabs to support our wooden roof frame. You can just see them in the picture.

Closer view of the metal support tabs to hold the roof framing in place. You can also see the other block turned on its side for the top vent. This is on the north side of the building.

Mike screwing the primary frame to the metal tabs.

What mess we make with all the required stuff to get the job done. Hard to imagine that it all fit in the rigs.

Added the top frame piece on the north side, this will allow us to slope the roof, and make room for cables and such to come through.

Outside view, notice we have our vent in place and sealed. You can also see some white blocks set in the corner, when we started we knew we would be short some blocks so we got some more and put them here, this was before we changed the plan and went with only 10 blocks high instead of twelve. We do have about 30 or so extra blocks if someone needs a few.

Getting the OSB on the roof. Notice the framing and how we sloped the roof. The 2x4 will help support the OSB that will close up the sides.

Really helps to have a nail gun handy. Makes short work of all the tasks we have to do.KF7MAX on the roof and AD7GC doing direction.

AD7GC and KE7ACY getting things measured out for the OSB sides. If you look close you will note that the rubber backing that seals the roof is in place.

OSB is done, and AD7GC and KE7ACY (inside) are putting a notch in the frame to allow the door to seat in.

The roofing shingles are in place and things are winding down for the day.. Notice the LONG SHADOWS...

Getting the door frame set in... what a job, took a bit longer but we got it in and it closes and opens just fine. Time to seal it up. We are now weather proof.

We are done this weekend. We have the roof on, building is secure, our shingles are on, except for the back and front above the door.

OK This WEEK #3 or a marathon OCT-6th arrives. Time to do the solar panels. Jeff KE7ACY and Max KF7MAX made the trip on Friday, and are ready to start work, but first a few needs have to occur. I cant repeat what Jeff is saying.

Finishing up the sides, KF7MAX worked on getting the holes drilled in the roof for the brackets and mounting plates, KE7ACY worked on the siding.

View of one of the 6 support 2x4's for the solar panel brackets. These support the East/West Legs.

Looking sharp, no pun intended. Our building is fully weather proof except for a few nooks and crannies to seal up. And some flashing for the edges.

3/8ths holes drilled in the support bracket, in the back and the middle support rafter. We have nine of these holes that the 5.5inch bolts will go through the metal brackets on the solar support frame, through the roof, and into the framing.

Squaring up the face of the support brackets so that the solar panels can mount flush to them.

Our brackets were pre-drilled on the ground prior to assembly on the roof. The acid test was will the solar panel fit and bolt down with all 6 holes lined up. YEP WORKED GREAT!!

Both Panels in place...shadows show that we had a long day. Will come back Sunday to finish up the wiring.

Back view of the panels...

Front view of the whole works...each support runner on the bottom is bolted via 3 bolts to the framing under the roof. And YES we did seal it all up. Of course part of any maintenance visits to the site will be to check for any signs of leakage.

KF7MAX drilling the access hole for the solar panel array wiring. Note our OSB board. This is two thickness, secured to the wall, for mounting our charge controller and any other needed electronics.

Done..conduit, head cap, and wires in place, we may want to run a piece of flat stock to support the middle wire run, the size of the wire and thickness of the shielding is good, but better safe than sorry.

The finished setup inside. Our fuse box for the solar panels, charge controller and wire leading down to the batteries.

Tom sent this picture. He donated some lights and wired in a small unit to supply 12vdc and 5vdc for any needed items we might decide to put into place. I think we need to add a fuse block and accessories breakout as well to it.

Looking back at the site as Jeff and I left that Sunday afternoon, the panels are pumping the suns energy into the batteries....now time to put up a tower and move the radios into place.

OCT-27th. Tower Construction starts. Ralph has bolted the tower to the north side. Some of the following pics are from Oct-27 and Oct 31st

THE CREW-Picture taken the following Wed-Oct31 when the repeater was moved. Mike AD7GC Ralph K7TWR Joe K7SQ Jeff KE7ACY

And lets not forget Tom K7COW on the right.

K7SQ Joe checking out the GPS coords.

First section up and the gin pole to put in the next section. K7TWR heading up.

Ralph getting the next section secured.

2 meter main antenna being installed Oct-31st

Digi-peater Antenna being bolted down..Note the 440 yagi link pointing to glass.

Getting the rack and the radios intalled.Oct-31st

Ralph getting the cement smoothed out. Oct-27th