07/17/10

091211 - Randy was down at the project today.  He used some material to secure the door, and then sealed it with foam and silicone.  Here are some pictures.

We have a persistent drip between the cans.  We've done some significant work to try and make it go away, and no go.  So, plan B - we capture the water and move it outside of the cans.  We've split the four inch pipe in three.

These are the two ends - with spouts.  We will take any water that comes in and evacuate it through the side walls

Hole drilled through the side walls - any water will be 'flushed' out this way

Inside door, after it had been blocked and siliconed

Trimming out the inside posts

From the outside, looking towards the steel access door.  Once the expanding foam had been added, along with the silicone, it was amazing how the space retained heat better than before.  We had turned off the kerosene heater, because of the dust as Randy was cutting, and it was comfortable in the shack an hour later.  It is really coming together.  I will be in there this weekend with some contractors, priming, painting, and moving forward

Got the quote from Hydro today - ouch - $8K to bring power to the lot line - it is too much.  I need to look at alternative options

091208 - Randy was working at the site again today.  We met at Surrey New and Used, and picked up a 36 inch steel door.  The door was installed today.  In addition, the Electrical room was finished with board, and so was the Coax Transfer room.  Things are moving along.  Randy also did a dump run, so the place is cleaned up again.  Here are some pictures:

Outside looking in - outer door open - new wall, new door.  I need to bring in some Baltic birch as fillers to make sure the door is tight to the frame

Randy and I moved the AGM batteries tonight - to their final resting place ;>}}

They were very heavy - but the dirty floor helped a lot!

South Can - looking West

South Can - looking East - through the Patio doors - bitterly cold - -9C this a.m.

North Can - looking East - Coax Transfer room is finished off

North Can - looking West - insulated door installed - needs to be blocked and insulated

Coax transfer station - all boarded - extra power points installed

BC Hydro was down today - two poles, no additional transformer required.  On top of this, I have to supply the pole (to a standard), and all of the necessary 'stuff' to connect to it.  I'm talking to Jeff to try and understand how big this is going to be.  The Hydro guy figured about $5K for installation to the lot line!  Not cheap, but over a ten year project, it might be more than reasonable - need to look at the numbers.

091207 - Randy was at the site working today.  He finished off the security wall - double layer of plywood - extra reinforced 2 x 6 construction, insulated with six inch Roxul - vapour barrier.  This should go a long way towards improving the amount of heat we keep in the shack during the winter, as well as significant improving our security.  The intent is that we would open up the main C can doors, and then there is a reinforced steel door that still has to be opened, all while the timer is ticking on the alarm system.  The main C can door would be opened, and locked open.  There is a ladder on the inside of the door, which is used to access the roof.  There will be a plywood 'Do not climb' placard on the ladder when it is not in use.  Randy also got started on the Coax Transfer room - with the ceiling in, along with part of the walls.

Above - The wall is now finished - ready for the door.  The door will be a solid core, steel clad door - with at least one deadbolt - more than likely two.  It will be a substantial structure.  in the summer we will add a screen door to it, to allow air to flow through the shack.

This is standing at the gate, looking due south.  Hydro is coming down tomorrow for a look at the site.  You can just barely see the transformer about 100 yards down the road.

Al took a run at this part of the field on Sunday.  Freezing cold.  We have swaled the field back away from the road - trying to get the water from running through the road bed.  It appears to be looking good - but it is still freezing cold.  The frame has been welded to the roof, with isolation pads to minimize the sound transfer.  The pit that has our pipes from the road was finished off, capped and the hole filled in again.

Ben was going to try and make it down there today and weld in the pods - but had some personal commitments that came up at the last minute.  Randy is there tomorrow - ideally installing the main door, finishing the Coax Transfer room, and then starting the boxed in ceiling fixture thingy's!

091206 - I was back in there early today - cleaned up and got ready for Jeff to come out to pull some more electrical cable.  It has been bitterly cold (well - by Vancouver standards), and the place was cold this a.m.  I got the big propane heater going for 20 minutes - 40,000 plus BTU's of heat, and the place started to warm up.  I got the Kerosene heater working as well.  The wind was blowing from the East, and it blew through the open door and the partially open patio door.  I need to work on that this week.

Kenny and Christian came over for the day to work.  Jeff unexpectedly had Jason, so we kept an eye on the little guy.  He went out to play some soccer, and Kenny checked on him.  I went out a minute or two later, and there was a big coyote showing too much interest in Jason, so I had them come back in.  Christian was really good with Jason - and he had a little helper for the afternoon.  Judy brought down an excellent lunch. 

We got a lot done - pulled more wire, and Jeff got a good run at the panels.  We ran out of ground wire (green wire), so that was all we could pull today.  Christian helped with the wire pulling, and then went on to prime some more of the two cans.  Kenny worked on the 2 x 6 security wall - this is a wall just inside the main can doors - solid construction, double plywood - insulated.  Here are some pictures:

Can you see how cold and windy this was?

It was a very cold and windy day today.  The East door was partially open so that the generator cables could be fed in , and the wind was just howling in there.  The patio door let quite a bit of cold wind in - but the Kerosene heater did a pretty decent job of keeping the place tolerable.  We still have to seal the area around the doors that let the wind and cold in behind the 2 x 4 insulated walls.  It is on the list...

Christian and his little helper - Jason

Jeff - and those aren't all of the wires that are going to get pulled - just where we got to today -Notice the Christmas colours - Red, White and Green

Where we got to with the security wall - there will be a 36 inch solid core steel door installed here.  The wall will be insulated, reinforced and alarmed - it should also be warmer!  The intention is that the outer door will be opened, and locked open.  The alarm will be tripped, and there will be x seconds to get into the main building, and turn off the alarm.  The alarm will be audible, visual, with notifications over the internet, via email, SMS and cell phone.  In addition, the plan is to have Internet feed with IP cameras monitored over the internet.

091205 - Saturday - went for the Ham breakfast, and then to a paint store, picked up Kenny and Christian, and headed to the project.  We were there about 9:00 a.m. and got a good day in there.  Christian started with priming the Electrical Room - I did some priming as well.  Kenny fixed the insulation in the Electrical 2 area, and then we put up the MDO panels.  In addition, in the freezing cold, Al worked on the road / field swale.  It was dark when I left so don't have pictures of that.  Judy came down about 2:45 today and did some priming as well.  I had to take a Change call at 3:00 that went a bit over an hour.  Here are the pictures from today.

091130 - Ben and Al were down at the site today.  They installed the top part of the ladder - much safer now.  They also installed the tubular platform to support the two pods.   It was quite the show getting them moved out of the way, welding in the supports for the platform.  Ben had some good ideas on how to reduce the noise from the generator - a couple of weeks will tell us how it is working.

It started out as a very nasty day - cold, pouring down and miserable.  Al's tent was useful.  Surprisingly, it turned nice later in the day

The platform - intended to spread the load of the two pods across the support structure of the C can

A little jeep action

Throw a millwright and a plumber - pipefitter together and they will work out some sort of a leverage arrangement that will move something

Now that is a decent, safe ladder

We also moved the welder to the other side of the C Cans - so that we can finish off the security wall at this end

091129 - Was down at the site for a few hours by myself on Sunday.  Cleaned up a bit, got a station set up.  Dave 'The Big Easy' was in there on Saturday and pulled two coax lines into each workstation, and then added connectors.  I used one of the two lines to hook up a radio and antenna tuner to the only antenna we have up right now - the eighty meter dipole.  I am using the RigRunner 12 port, with an AGM 155 amp hour battery connected to it.  I ran for several hours on Sunday, along with my cell plugged into the battery.  I had a bridge up and a change going on for several hours, so couldn't really operate, but I was warm, dry and operational!

The battery went down to about 12.5 volts, but when I was back there this afternoon, the voltage was back up to 12.7 volts.  Oh yes, I turned off the generator for about an hour, and ran off of one of my high intensity LED lights - see the pictures below:

Electrical room - wall board complete except for the last foot at the top - we'll leave that open until the electrical is finished

This wall needs to be the next focus - We ran out of Roxul insulation - welder is now moved - so we can also build the security wall

Generator off, kerosene heater on, battery power, LED lighting - nice