090318 - Went in and talked to the Township yesterday.  They have asked that I make a presentation to Council on what my plans are.  I will do that, not asking for permission, but identifying what it is that I plan on doing.  The plans aren't finalized yet, as I need to get into the field and do some more measurements with a Yagi on a portable tower.  I've also put together a bit of a proposal for the brothers that own the farm, and I want to try and get in to see them this weekend, and see if we are on the right track to a workable deal.  I have some concerns about seeing Council - but if I make it clear I am there to tell them what I am going to do, not asking for their permission, it should be ok.

I've been continuing to work on the plans - the size of the 'Pad', interior designs of the shipping containers (C-Cans), stations, how we would position the towers to maximize the directional antennas, as well as where we would position wire antennas.  I think I have worked out two decent beverage antennas running along the fence lines.

We need to get into the field for the next tests, but it is really wet in there.  I took Judy down to see the 'farm' and she met the neighbours, Frank and Bernice, along with their dog Bonnie.  I think they are going to be okay with what we are trying to do with our remote station.  Stay tuned.

090227 - Drove down to the farm at 5:30ish this a.m. with the van.  I had tested the setup on the van and it worked fine last night.  So got down there, and I backed all of the way down the lane, almost to the gate.  There was still an inch or two of snow, so it was a bit difficult getting out of the lane when I was done.  I tuned up on 40 meters, and the band was busy.  Lot of Short Wave stations coming in, and quite a bit of CW.  I found one group of guys talking on SSB, and they were coming in pretty good.  I was paying attention to my conference call, so was more just looking for what the 'S Meter' was doing.  I can't tune 80 meters with the ATAS, but I had a good listen up there.  I went all of the way down to 6 meters.  No noise floor at all.  The international time signal was booming in on two bands.

On the way back from the field, I stopped almost under the power lines.  As expected there was some interference, but it wasn't that bad.  So my hopes are still up that I can make this work.  I'm away for most of the next week, but I'll target next weekend for getting a dipole down there, in the middle of the field and we'll have a listen again.

Nothing heard back from the township yet ;>}}

090226 - My plans have changed for this weekend and I am going to have to fly to Toronto on Sunday.  In addition, my brother Paul has asked me to come to Gibsons to help him with his new house on Friday evening and Saturday morning.  I had planned on going to the proposed site this Sunday and doing a site survey.  Drive out into the field with my jeep and using a vertical antenna, look at the noise floor.  If it looked okay, I would set up a portable dipole and do the same test.  So, knowing I was going to be out of the box on Sunday, I decided late this afternoon that I would take a run out to the field in my car, and using the Yaesu 897D and the ATAS 120 would listen around for the noise floor at the end of the road.  It wasn't a great plan, but it was a plan!

Took a run out there, and got set up.  The darn ATAS wouldn't tune.  The ground on the antenna must be corroded after the winter we have had.  I came home and threw the antenna and the radio in my wife's van, and it immediately tuned up.

So - before I left the proposed site, with the antenna in the full down position (i.e. not tuned)  I listened to 80  meters through 50 Mhz.  There was no noise floor.  Zero, zip, nada.  I heard signals, and listened to the time signal on several different bands, which were booming in.

I've got a 5:45 a.m. conference call tomorrow a.m., which i am going to take in Judy's van heading to the 'Farm'.  I will spend a half an hour listening to various bands and see what the noise floor looks (listens) like.  It was a cold, clear day today.  I'm guessing I was parked about 1 KM from the 500KV power lines.  This won't be a perfect test, but it will give me some clue if I have a problem.  I will have to arrange to get a portable tower into the field, closer to where my proposed installation will be, with a Yagi antenna on it and that will give us a much better understanding of the noise floor.

090125 - Well it has been an exciting couple of days.  I phoned the township and talked to both the Planning and the Building Permits department.  This was obviously a first for them, as I was put on hold a couple of times, and they struggled with my questions on how an Amateur could put up towers on a rural field.  Finally I was told that I should attend at the Township office, and talk to the Planner.  I went down there, and had an interesting conversation.  The Townships position was that there was a policy, which they felt I was subject to.  I asked to see the policy, and pointed out that it applied to 'telecommunications' towers, and was addressed to 'Wireless Carriers'.  I am neither.  They were insistent.   I then pointed out that a tower under 15 Meters for an Amateur Operator was exempt from anything this onerous.  Their position was any tower over 12 meters had to go through a public inquiry.  Did I mention the $1,100 application fee.

I left the Township office less than satisfied.  I sat down and did my homework, and sent the following email to the Township.

090221- I've been hunting for an option to expand my HF Radio experience.  There is no way that I am going to be able to put up a decent tower and antenna at my home QTH.  I don't have enough room, and it would definitely put an end to my marriage, my daughter wouldn't talk to me anymore, and a few neighbours might be somewhat less than thrilled as well.

So - I've been looking around, and I think I may have found an option.  It would involve renting / leasing access to some property in South Langley.  I would build what could become a pretty decent station over time.  We would have access to the property, so we could operate on site, and we would have high speed Internet, so that we could access the site remotely.

I think I have found a site.  It is closer to some high voltage power lines than I would like, but the next steps are to go down there and try a vertical antenna and see how it works.  After that, if it still looks good, I'll try and borrow one of the two club's that I belong to, mobile tower.  We can set that up, with a Yagi on it, and get a much better feel for how the noise floor is there.  Ideally, this is something that we could leverage for a few other hams, not just myself.

This link will take you to some Microsoft Earth Views of the property.  Where it shows a scale, I'm not convinced it is right.  The power lines look a lot further away than shown on pictures.  Daniel and I went to the site today, and we took some pictures.  The link to them is here.

Talking to the older couple that lives about 150 meters away, the dead end road has been a problem in the near past.  There are no lights at the end of the road.  They have had people drive through the gate into the fields.  They have had stolen bank machines dumped there, and it is likely a bit of a 'lover's lane'.  The lady indicated that she thought people were doing drugs up there.  Daniel, my son, pointed out a used syringe on the ground at the end of the road.  The lady indicated that she was concerned about what was going on there.  I suggested that a call to the Mounties, on their non-emergency line, would likely get the type of response that would discourage individuals from using the end of the road for dubious purposes.

Thoughts - if we bring power to the end of that road (the property line), maybe we need to put in a motion activated bright light on the pole.  We could mount a motion activated wifi camera on the pole and advertise that they are on candid camera?  Definitely, I would want to post no trespassing and video surveillance signs, etc.

My discussions with the brothers today was good.  They are willing to work with me to determine what we can do with the site.  It has a lot of plusses, and only a couple of obvious potential negatives.  We discussed the necessity to put in an access road, and that the shipping containers would need to be on gravel.  We discussed multiple towers, and that we would want to put in some utility poles for dipoles.  They have hay in this field, and turn cows loose in it.  Cows like to rub up against things, so it will be necessary to fence off any towers, utility poles and around where we have the C-Cans (shipping containers).  Where we can avoid guying towers, it will minimize the impact on the use of the field for its main purpose, growing hay and feeding cows. The brothers indicate that they don't plow the field, so we would only have to go down about two feet in the ground to put in conduit for coax and control wire to the towers.

When they cut the hay, it will be necessary to drive around the fenced off areas, but they didn't think this would be a big deal, as they are used to dodging the legs of the massive power lines cutting through their property.

There is a fair amount of soft ground in this field.  We are going to have to build a swale around where we put the C-cans, to divert the water.  If we have to build in a road, then we should make sure that we put in some Big-O pipe to move the water around the access road.  In addition, it would probably make sense to dig a bit deeper on any conduit runs that we put in, and put Big-O below it with some sand on top, and then backfill with topsoil.  The brothers indicated that any 'extra dirt' we get from digging down to hardpan, we could move it to the lower part of the field to build it back up.  It will likely be May before we could get into the field with equipment, if everything else works out.

Still thinking out loud, it would be best to move the C-Cans at least a 100 meters or so from the main road.  This might be enough to make it less attractive for people to 'explore'.  The C-Cans are going to need to be seriously hardened - so that they are going to be very difficult to get into.   We will likely have a lot of very expensive equipment in them, and they will be vulnerable.  We have discussed the requirement to fence in the C-Cans, to keep the cows out.  I'd like to avoid putting in a fence with razor wire on top!  We'll need to splash some paint on the C-Can's to make them fit into the environment.

I expect that we will need to run in 220 Volt to a 100 Amp breaker box.  This would be an underground run from the property line.  Initially, we will need a single 40 foot Shipping Container.  My research so far indicates that an insulated one might be the best option.  If we have to insulate it and put plywood walls and roof in it, that will add extra cost.  More research is required.  I've done some poking around on the Internet, and I've pushed up some ideas here.  I definitely like the idea of having a sliding screen door inside the main doors.  We can unlock the main door, and then there would be a locking, slider door just inside the C-Can.   I've seen some C-Cans where they have moved the sliding door four to six feet inside the can and made a bit of a porch.  Nice idea, but I think having the porch outside the can works for me - we can always put up a tarp if we want to sit outside and enjoy the sun, flies, and cows.

So - even though we want to remote into this environment, our thinking is that nothing beats being hands on when it comes to working a contest.  This setup would give us that kind of access to the equipment.  I've seen some pictures of C-Cans that have the double locking doors on both ends - that is attractive, as we could put two stations at either end, and use the center part for relaxing or for a bunk or two to catch a few z's if the bands die.  The C-Can can face East - West, so we would get early and late light, as well as a decent breeze through the container.  I've also seen some interesting ideas on putting windows in, with sliding steel shutters that are locked when you aren't there.  Ventilation and heat will be a must, as will an alarm system tied into the local club repeater.  There would be some parking spots if we fenced in the C-Cans, as well as along the access road we will have to build.