Drilling a new tower base on a rock

Building a tower base on regular soil is a relatively easy task. But what if the “soil” is hard uneven rock?

Here is a photo of  my situation. The starting point is an uneven rock measuring 1,6 x 1,6 meters. The blue stand offs are the old tower base.

The challenge is how to drill vertically over 16 holes 30 cm  into the rock? Professionals do it by big diamond cutters/drill machines that are vertically positioned. Hilti, Huskvarna etc makes these. However, this requires a flat surface to mount these on. So it wont work in my situation…:(

So use a regular SDS Max drill and attach a horizontal libel (see photo below).

 

This is how it is done. Of course you would need a steel template for the hole pattern to allow you to drill vertically.

SAL-30

I have tested this new concept for about two years now. And I can see it really works. As well as my other beverages.

Close up of the mast and the wires.
The three guying levels on a 10 meter high fibre mast.
Side view of the SAL-30.

My remote set-up

This is the actual home base set-up. Expect the station monitors you may take with you on travel all these stuff.

My home base for remote ham radio. A Flex Maestro panel and a Vibroplex keyer besides a standard Window 7 computer with two monitors.

This has evolved over the years. Here is a schematic over it:

Schematic over my set-up at the radio at the remote location.

Welcome to the world of remote DX-ing and Contesting

I have been doing remote DX-inf for about five years and remote contesting for about a year. This blog will focus on enhancements to the remoting that have evolved over the last years due to internet technology.

with the new technology achievements you can easily integrate stations and accessories together  in a way that was difficult say five years ago. This also means you can easily change your layout and expand it without spending an awful lot of time on “debugging”.