WUVT has the new antenna mounted on the tower.

It’s time to move some equipment out of the old transmitter room.

Some “temporary” elements are still in place.

The new home is ready to be be occupied.

On January 16, 2009, the transmitter building was set into place. Lynchburg Crane was brought in to handle the job. The concrete pad for the building was laid earlier. You can see in one pic that the concrete pouring skills by the station staff leave a little something to be desired, but the other three side are perfect.

Blogger: Kevin Sterne, chief engineer

A little over a week ago, Josh and I met to tackle the last stump that we could not remove with the Bobcat. Since we had expended our funds for this part of the project, we were left to use little more than our hands to pull it out. Well, that’s a bit of an exageration. We use a saws-all and a chainsaw to help us finally removed that stump.

I still have yet to hear final word about our building being transfered to VT property. But I believe at this point, the VSP rep assumes it is ours since he gave me the key at our meeting more than a month ago. I have been talking with him to get a drawing of the recommended foundation for the building and I got that last week. We’ll use this drawing to plan a concrete pad for the pre-fab building to sit on.

I’ll also be submitting our application for a modification to our license for the STL path. We’re nearing the end of our allowable timeline for filing this appplication, so it’s a good idea to get it done now.

So up-and-coming is some more gravel work as well as digging for the foundation. We’ve allocated funds for this part of the project so no more digging out things by hand! Once the foundation is in place, I can take the person who will be transporting our new building up to the site so that there are no surprises in the building’s transport. And then it is on to bigger and better things (namely, getting Edd and all the other electronics in).

Blogger: Kevin Sterne, chief engineer

Work days in September were successful in all aspects except for one pesky stump. We’ll have to figure out how to get the stump out so that the crane that is going to drop our building down will be able to get into position.

Looked at the antenna mounting brackets. Not exactly what we were hoping for, but we’ll figure a way to add some more metal to it and make the mounts work. We’ve already got some ideas scheming on this fact.

STL problem turned out to be a bad cable. We ended up narrowing it down to the fact that we had been using the same cable all along. So, after a quick trip to the electronics store, we’re good to go. Even tested it out on-air during a late night show. We didn’t put it on the air chain, just looped it back into FM and heard how it sounded. Slight delay, but sounded great!

Paperwork for the building is expected to go through this week. We’ve already met with VSP officers and I got to check out the building two weeks ago. I was even given the key to the building since the building was certain to go to us.

However, we got word that we’ll definitely need to pour a concrete foundation. So my task will be to finish the site preparation and get things ready for our friends with a crane who are going to transport the building for us. Once we have a building, we’ll have a place to put equipment at. Right now, the engineering plate is just about as full as it can get.

Blogger: Heath Sorey, business manager

Here are the latest photos and some background for Projects in Progress.

September 2008 saw a major step in the plan to move WUVT’s transmitter from the campus of Virginia Tech on to Price’s Mountain in the surrounding county. Armed with a Bobcat and some willpower, volunteers from WUVT went to work.

This is a pile of 16 tons of gravel. This is just the start of the work.

WUVT Chief Engineer Kevin Sterne drives the Bobcat up the hill. We had it for 24 hours, and made the most of it.

With Sterne at the helm, the stump of a tree is removed. The stump was where our communications building will be set.

Gravel is put down over a cleared area. A former Virginia State Police building will be put here and used by WUVT.

There is still one stump left to be removed on top of the mountain. More steps need to be taken, such as electrical and telephone installation. February 2009 can’t come soon enough.

Blogger: Heath Sorey, business manager

WUVT is the non-profit, educational, independent radio station at Virginia Tech. This year, the station is preparing for one of the most drastic improvements in its history, and the station just turned 60 in April! In the coming months, Projects in Progress will document the progress WUVT is making with photos and blog entries.

Over the course of this year, we’re upgrading our transmitter facility from a site on top of one of Virginia Tech’s on-campus residence halls to a tower site on Price’s Mountain. The station will also increase its power from 3kW to 6.5kW ERP. Different staff members will give updates throughout the year on this photoblog. I’d like to thank Chriss Scherer and Radio magazine for giving us this opportunity.

Behold, a majestic view from Price’s Mountain. Our new transmitter building will actually be located behind where I was standing. (Click the image to enlarge it.)

This is a stream near the mountain site. One of our biggest problems in the residence hall was extreme weather conditions, be they heat or cold. At the new site, this stream could cause some headaches for our great team of engineers. (Click the image to enlarge it.)

If you will, imagine that the random pieces of scrap metal are gone and a new transmitter there. We hope this fully comes into fruition in the near future. (Click the image to enlarge it.)

Currently, our website (www.wuvt.vt.edu) features a splash entry page. It’s on a rotating basis, with different images taking the spotlight. Our IT Director, Jason McKillican, decided it needed a change earlier this month. Using my picture, he did a little design work, adding the “Insert WUVT here,” using our logo. The idea is to show the progress we’re making and to get people thinking about the transmitter upgrade.

The station’s current transmitter site is on the roof of a campus dorm. The station is building a site a few miles off campus on a mountain. Want to find it for yourself? Here are the coordinates:

Campus location:

Latitude: 37-13-28 N

Longitude: 80-24-30 W

New transmitter site:

Latitude: 37-11-11.5 N

Longitude: 080-28-53.8 W

WUVT-FM, the student-run radio station at Virginia Tech, is building a new transmitter site. This first installment of Projects in Progress will follow the status of this undertaking. Student managers from the station will provide photos and updates along the way.

WUVT was in the news in April 2007 when several people were killed and many injured during a campus shooting. One of the people injured was Kevin Sterne, the WUVT chief engineer. We reported on this in the Radio Currents. Sterne’s story caught the attention of broadcast engineers, and the Society of Broadcast Engineers, Clear Channel, Cumulus and several broadcast consultants stepped in to offer assistance to the station on Sterne’s behalf. The result of these efforts is the construction of a new transmitter site for the station.