WRLM (since changed to WQOH) is owned by the Queen of Heaven
Catholic Radio which is affiliated with EWTN. When EWTN
acquired the station it had apparently been dark for quite some
time. The tower site was overgrown and in very bad condition.
They had the site cleaned up and AM Ground Systems rebuilt the
ground system.
An initial inspection revealed that when the tower base was
installed it had never been backfilled around the concrete base.
Weeds and bushes were growing inside the tower fence at least head
high. The tower sat in a depression in which water would
collect. We spent a considerable amount of time tearing out
the old fence and reworking the area around the tower base such that
it could be maintained more easily.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Area of old fill over top of original ground system |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Excavation to the right where the tower was built and never properly backfilled. |
|
The new tower fence can be seen to the right. The old tower fence was ineffective and certainly not compliant with OET-65. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Guy anchor almost covered by fill and kudzu. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
View of the TX building and a sat dish. Excavation contractor equipment can be seen in the back ground. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The old studio and transmitter building had been neglected as badly as the rest of the property. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The old original tower fence. |
|
The fence is only about 2 ft from the tower in the area of "latice". The tower base is below grade level at the left hand side. We cut that area down and used it to fill around the concrete. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The line of fill looking westward. |
|
The front of the old studio building can been seen in the upper left corner. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The structure on the right is a building rented to a florist. |
|
This building was moved in to use some of the "unused" property at the transmitter site. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clearing work is proceeding. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
WOW |
|
You can see the tower base. We graded the bank down and backfilled around the tower base to create a smooth maintainable area. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Straps to ground rods (3) and ATU. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The original tower base grounding was inadiquate and due to the condition of the tower we couldn't bond directly to the base plate. |
|
We used clamps to attach new ground straps to the tower legs. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tower base ground infrastructure. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
