[TowerTalk] steps

[Dennis Vernacchia]

Thanks for clarifying and I sure hope he tamped it back to a safe spec !

73, Dennis n6KI

On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 5:55 PM, <K7LXC at aol.com> wrote:

>  In a message dated 9/13/2009 7:07:01 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
> towertalk-request at contesting.com writes:
>
> >  I thought I read on reflector or in a Tower installation book that
> it is not a good thing to backfill the area around the tower base,
> but looks to me from photos as that was done as concrete was poured into a
> contained wood wall form and then area around
> base filled back in with dirt...
>
> >  Am I missing something here or not interpreting photos right ?
>
>     I looked like they used a form around the rebar cage so they would have
> had to backfill it. Typical tower base specs call for pouring against
> "undisturbed earth" so the forms would have been against spec.
>
>     Undisturbed earth has the maximum soil strength - disturbed or
> backfilled does not. You can use a form and then backfill it but it's not
> easy. You have to tamp the dirt back to its previous solidity with powered
> jumping jack tamper. It's outside of the scope of your average ham
> tower owner to do it properly so I'd recommend sticking with undisturbed
> earth.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve    K7LXC
> TOWER TECH
> author of UP THE TOWER - The Complete Guide To Tower Constrution
> available from www.championradio.com
> Cell: 206-890-4188
>
>
>