(since we took yesterday off)
Weather: nice, shirtsleeve temperatures until rain rolled in at the end of the day.
People: Steve, Chris, Tony, William. Reva has departed (after giving us skidsteer training). Antonio and Gary arrived this afternoon. Elise Osenga arrived to help and do documentation.
Lots accomplished on lots of fronts:
Towers:
- Installed 4' screw anchors for temporary guys and erected c tower to 40'. Did this by pushing up 20', then using the davit for the next 2 sections. Tony and William climbed.
- Attempted to install 1 manta using the 65lb electric jackhammer that Gary brought, but didn't get too far.
- Started to tension/level ue using the Leica and tensiometers, but didn't finish before rain drove us out.
Instrumentation:
- Hung all electronics boxes and clamps to the bottom 3m of the 35' towers (EC100/DSM/Power box)
- Tony started wiring power to power boxes. I think at least uw is done.
- Xtream arrived and installed internet service for us. We now can ping google at d and Gary says that we could have wifi now at the site. However, permanent power is not yet running to this tower. We used the DSM's 24V DCDC converter to provide POE power for the Xtream station adaptor. The Xtream field engineer was Daren Glover (glover@xtreaminternet.com; cell: 970-975-1844). He says not to hesitate to contact him if we have issues.
Big day.
This morning we got an OSHA run down on skid steers. Thanks REVA! Then it was off to the site. Upon arrival we split up into groups and went to work. Anchors for the temp guys on the central tower were set and first power runs set. By noon the central tower base sections were raised. By the end of the day we were able to add two more tower sections to the central tower. Three to go!
Gary and Antonio arrived with supplies ready to help. The electric jackhammer will not do the job with the manta anchors. Tomorrow morning we plan on having an early meeting to make a decision on anchoring the central tower. I believe large auger anchors or heavy equipment to drive mantas are the two options.
Rain.
With brute force, 3' to 4' anchors were set today. To much psychological benefit, we have one 35' tower raised and guyed. Dan provided insight into anchoring and tower section building with the davit. He has since returned to his life. We wrapped up work on site at 2:30 due to poor conditions.
Tomorrow we plan to contact DOE about the bobcat at RMBL. We intend to test our jackhammer with it and potentially use it to drive mantas later in the week. We'll also seek out some rental equipment from nearby towns to get the complete set up for manta driving. The team will likely split up in the morning with one team heading out to pick up equipment and the other driving augers into the ground at the site.
Items we need:
Tensiometer
Shackles
Chains
Slings
Safety wire
Progress.
This morning we got on the phones and called a bunch of equipment rental places in search of a hydraulic jackhammer. No luck. Although some did have skid steers with attachments for the jackhammer. Likewise, it appears the bobcat at RMBL is a no go. It will not start. So we went to the site.
3' and 4' anchors went in the ground by method of digging, backfilling and brute strength. Within a few hours we had towers 2 and 3 up and permanently guyed. Spent the rest of the day planning our next moves.
Gary has agreed to bring us an electric jackhammer and other requested items. Hoping that now we have the correct attachments the jh will work.
Tomorrow is a down day as we await the remaining gear needed for final anchors. It is also Steve's Birthday. Happy Birthday Steve!
Just a few photos:
All 3 35' towers erected:
Digging out to bury the 36" augers:
The 36" auger buried.
Weather: rain in morning, still were able to navigate the road in and out.
People: Steve, Chris, Tony, William, Bob, Dan (who left at the end of the day: Thanks, Dan!)
Mary Cal brought the big screw anchors (thanks, Mary Cal!!), so we tried them out. The 46" pull tested at 1800lbs, which is more than adequate. However, we thought we still should have a backup of another anchor. Thus, our goal is a 46" and 36" at each anchor point for the 35' towers. Unfortunately, after peppering the ground, we often were unable to fully seat aa 46" in the ground, and sometimes it was difficult to get a 36" in the ground. At the end of the day, we had a 46" and 36" in for ue, so we added the last 5' to this tower and fully erected it. We also got 5 36" anchors in for d, though one of even these anchors we accomplished by digging out the first 2' of rocks, pre-punching a hole with the big steel pick bar, screwing in the anchor, and then back-filling (with tamping) the hole. It felt pretty solid, but we'll have to do this yet again to be finished with d.
Tomorrow, places should be open again, so we'll continue the Manta saga....
Weather: occasional rain yesterday and heavy at times today that painted the surrounding mountains white
The full crew is here: Steve, Tony, Chris, William, Reva, Bob, Dan, Jude (Bob's dog), but....
Bob brought the hydraulic jackhammer that he picked up yesterday and we hooked it up, but it wouldn't run (always caused the hydraulic compressor to die). We fussed with it for 2 hours and gave up. This was the only available jackhammer from the place we rented from, Williams Form in Golden. Thus, we had to stop work since everything now depends on having anchors to get the towers vertical. There are a lot of options we are working on, but all have issues and few could be resolved over the weekend.
We called on Isabel to locate the large (36" and 46") screw anchors, the "drill" to install it, and she also went on a Boulder odyssey to locate a socket to drive these. We then called on my wife, Mary Cal, to drive all this stuff out here. Hopefully, we'll be able to get these into the ground to erect at least the 35' towers tomorrow, while Dan is still here. Thanks, both of you, for graciously accommodating an abrupt change of plans!!
Anyone else is free to summarize any or all of the options we have considered!
This morning, we arrived at the site and unloaded the remaining equipment needed to install manta anchors. The jackhammer wouldn't hammer. We troubleshot and called Williams Form, but couldn't get it running. Attempted driving anchors with sledge, but decided this could potentially damage the drive steels. Thus begins the quest for solutions... Cresty-Quest.
We investigated other towers anchoring systems in the area and found auger anchors in use. Dan helped us greatly today by sharing his experience and confirmed that we have not used the small augers for large (Rohn) towers in the past. Also that the orientation of the anchor is critical to loading.
For the short term we picked up these:
We plan to use these or larger auger anchors tomorrow for the 35' towers. The larger augers are on the way and will be ready for use tomorrow morning. This will hopefully get us vertical while Dan is still here to share his experience/knowledge.
For the long term:
There's a bobcat on site at RMBL. Chris has contacted Erik H. about using this at the site. If we get the okay we may use it to drive mantas. Another option is rent a (the) jackhammer from Crested Butte Rentals but then we would need to rent a compressor as well, because it's pneumatic. They do not have a compressor. Which means a rental compressor from another town. Or we may rent a jackhammer from another town. The nearest rental would be confirmed Monday. Rental places in nearby towns (gunnison, montrose, grand junction, etc) are closed until Monday. There was also some discussion about digging holes and then burying manta anchors with heavy stones and earth. Or using concrete blocks.
After a review of several issues amongst ourselves we:
- Redid the tower connections without washers on the 3 towers assembled so far, to better seat the bolts on the Nylock nut threads
- Tamped down soil under the bases for the 3x 35' towers (this required lowering 20' of ue that had been erected)
- Doubled up a few more screw anchors for the 35' towers
- Flipped the guy wire attachment point on ue's 30' section, which now makes it loose, but not stressing the diagonal braces.
- Since it was down, we attached the 30' section to ue along with the permanent guy wires and successfully raised it with 4 people
- HOWEVER, as we were tensioning just the temp rope guy, one of the screw anchors snapped. Fortunately, we had a second screw anchor in place to resecure this guy, but in the end we decided to abandon the screw anchors (at least the used ones that we have here) and plan on using Mantas instead. We lowered ue back down again.
- We added guy wires to d.
- We decided that erecting a 35' tower fully assembled would be workable.
Thus, ue, uw, and d are all at the same state of having 30' assembled on the ground, attached to a secure tilting base plate, and with permanent guys attached. We can add the top 5' to each of these to finish up. However, they can't be erected until we have guy anchor points that we are happy with. We will retry Manta installation tomorrow with the remaining parts that are needed that Bob is bringing tonight.
We also assembled 20' of tower c (which does not have a tilting base plate) on the ground. Again, it is waiting for guy anchor points to start going vertical.
We left the site at 12:30, having worked through intermittent rain.
Tony and William are on the way to Gunnison to return the UHaul.
This morning William and I returned the electric jackhammer to Crested Butte Rentals. They did not charge us for the rental, confirming that it was indeed a 'lemon'. They do offer skid steers for rental and currently have a few on site (if we decide to use them for anchor installation.) They are not open on the weekends.
https://www.crestedbutterentalcenter.com/construction-equipment-rentals/4455327
Upon arrival at the site, we assisted the rest of the crew with tower adjustments; tamping bases, permanent guy installation and hardware. All seemed well until an auger anchor cracked while attempting to attach a permanent guy to it. Work stopped. A discussion took place and the decision to remove current auger anchors from the field was made. Further discussion about future use of these anchors is necessary and is certainly an item for the SOS debrief.
William and I returned the Uhaul in Gunnison. The store owner had an outstanding unorganized collection of varieties including six boxes of pocket knives, full military outfits and fishing gear from the 80s. William bought a can opening nail clipper for $1. We then stopped at Tractor Supply (a roughly 30mile/40min drive). It was of acceptable size and is a potential backup hardware store.
With much anticipation, we await the arrival of the remaining items needed for Manta Anchor installation.
No free breakfast at Elevations Hotel.
Grocery store in town: Clark's
Address: 500 Belleview Ave, Crested Butte, CO 81224
Open til 9. $$$
More options in Gunnison.
Shuttle Bus info (free to downtown)
https://travelcrestedbutte.com/crested-butte-bus-schedule/
Weather: sprinkles several times throughout the day, then sunny. Temperatures were mild.
A mixed day:
- Manta anchors
- Found that we also needed a jackhammer, that Williams Form didn't tell us about. Tony found one in Crested Butte to rent
- Nevertheless, Chris and Tony found that WF also didn't give us a complete kit. We are asking Bob Wiley to pick this up on his way out tomorrow, but in the meantime Manta installation can't start
- Screw anchors
- Tested 2 to failure in this soil. Got motion of the stake in the ground at about 400lb and pulled out at 700lb. Managed to break one at about 800lb. This is close to what we need, but we plan to be safe and double-up at each anchor point. I thought we had enough anchors, but I think we've asked Bob to bring out a few more.
- In the mean time, we've installed (just) one anchor at each anchor point for the 35' towers and a few are also doubled
- Survey: I had some confusion when setting anchor locations (that depend on tower orientation), but eventually ended up pretty close
- Towers:
- All base plates set and staked, though some may have shifted as we attached tower sections
- ue: erected to 20' and secured with temp guys. Next 10' section has the guy wire attachment bracket attached.
- uw and d: assembled to 30' onto hinged base plates, but still laying down.
- both have the guy wire attachment bracket loose. It is unclear why.
- uw: Permanent guys are attached at top
- c: base plate set along with ground rod.
- All towers were assembled with bolts/1 flat washer/nylock nut. The flat washer prevents the nylock from catching well and even without it, the bolt doesn't protrude through the entire nylock thread. We need longer bolts, but feel that these will hold for now.
Today was our first full day of field operations. Accomplishments include further unpacking and organizing, confirming tower locations and site layout, linking 35ft tower sections for raising, setting auger anchors, organizing guy wire sets and performing pull test on auger anchors. "Non-accomplishments" include missing items to complete manta anchoring, low pull test results on auger anchors, bolts not fully captured by nylock nuts and not packing a few crucial tools.
Solutions: We contacted Williams Form about the missing items for anchoring and they assure us the items can be provided (via pickup in Golden, CO). We hope to be setting anchors soon. The pull test on auger anchors came out to 700ft/lb (+/-100ft/lb). Doubling auger anchors will increase load tolerance (we tension to 400ft/lb). The bolts we use to link tower sections can be used without washers (nylock nut is being used). Removal of washer will give us enough thread to capture safely. Chris and I went to the hardware store to pick up items other items we need.
The Ace Hardware is open until 9pm.
Drove from Boulder and dropped everything at the site:
- U-Haul made it just fine since the road (despite being quite rutted) was mostly dry. The drive took a bit under 6 hours, FLAB-to-field, including a gas break, a construction detour, and 2 construction flagger stops via Hwy285 and Cottonwood Pass.
- Completely emptied the U-Haul with 3 people in about 90minutes
- Completely emptied the bed of the the silver truck to make a pile of PI sensors, including the snow pillows
- Picked up the Manta Ray installation kit and completely emptied the bed of the white truck by depositing this stuff at the site
- Confirmed the tower locations as flagged during site survey
- Gave a tour for Erik (head of RMBL operations), who was pleased
- Started filling up a room at the RMBL lab with extra stuff (food/Leica/straps/plywood). Erik will try to find an empty cabin for us to store empty boxes/tubs.
- Done by 5pm, checked into hotel and took the (free) bus into town for dinner and grocery shopping
Taken mostly from qctables:
Radiometers: not getting rpile.in, tcase.in, others reporting (tried pushing scan i2c button, didn't fix) → swapped in radiometer with right id for longwave in, now all reporting.
NR01: updated PIC code and plugged into uw. Isabel updated the configuration so data are expected.
Gsoil/qsoil/lambda: plugged in with latest PIC code. Getting data from all, qsoil values are slightly negative. Is this a problem?
Tsoils: all reporting, data looks good.
Pressure: all reporting, no data in qctables because it's outside clip limits which are set for Gothic. Data looks ok in ncharts.
TRH: all reporting (just replaced fuse + housing for 13m trh, it's reporting now but not yet making it to qctables), data looks good.
CSAT: all reporting after I swapped the sonic head on 10m.c (and previous resetting of some EC100's using ECmon). Some heads are intermittent, but I presume this will clear up in the field.
EC150:
- all h2o reporting. Some heads were blocked by foam padding. (3m.uw died over friday night)
- alll co2 reporting, but about half are clipped. Hoping this will go away in the field.
- Note that, in the ECmon reconfiguring, I noticed 2 EC100 boxes that were set to force Tirga to 25C. I think these are all fixed now.
Pillows: working, needed reboot of cl. There are only 2 boxes connected. Saturday: Now back down to 1 pillow; pillow 2 doesn't respond, even manually. Don't know why not.
Flowcaps: getting data from both flowcaps. The second needed to have the power switch turned on its USB adaptor. Both are now configured to the averaging we want (30/30/300).
Apogee IR: all reporting. Raw values look good, Steve is working on debugging the surface temp calculation.
Tsnows: Currently plugged in to d and ue. (uw is done, but Chris is protecting the sensors so the cable doesn't reach.) Looks good.
Gps/chrony: finally started getting good GPS on uw, but just recently stopped getting good gps on ct. I'll look into it, see jira for more details. → ct fixed itself after I pulled the GPS antenna out to rest on the top of the dsm box.
Victrons: not staged, not planning to stage (actually want to stage at least one as part of a power drop test – Tony is building up power boxes for this)
Anything else I'm forgetting??
Today, I processed calibrations done July 2022 for Tsoils: 25,41,47,38,43,12,44,49,20,48,01,23,42,39,36,11,21,28
Of these, I have updated the PIC code to v1.08 (double buffering) and loaded the above calibrations into: 42,23,36,11,21,47,44
Of these, I have staged 36,42,44,47 into the "d" DSM for SOS and changed the corresponding configuration (which unfortunately needs to know which S/N is where, to distinguish the Tsoil temperature profile)
The remaining 11,21,23 sensors will be sent to SOS as spares.