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.