Well, cold weather has hit Blacksburg as it has along much of the mid-Atlantic.  While I usually enjoy the snow flurries that I am watching outside my office window, this year I am cursing them.

The next big task for the project is to dig out earth for a foundation for the building.  Soon after we make the dig, we'd pour concrete around rebar and let the concrete harden or cure for several days.  This is where we run into a problem.  If the air temperature and likely the concrete temperature falls close to or below the freezing mark, then the concrete does not harden correctly.  Like I said before, I am now cursing the snow flurries.

We were looking at last Thursday and Friday for digging earth and pouring concrete.  However, with forecasted cold air coming in from Canada during the day on Saturday, I called off the dig and pour.  Now, I wait.  We won't be able to proceed very far until 4-5 days of warm air come up from the south.  There are a few things that we will be able to do though.

We'll be able to look at the generator that we'll be getting and make sure it is in working order where it sits right now on Poor Mountain.  We'll also be able to go to Louisville, Kentucky to meet up with the Clear Channel engineer there and transport our antenna back to Blacksburg.  We're looking into EMCVT property for storage of the antenna.  We'll also look at how we will mount our antenna and get that problem solved.  We would really like to mount the antenna to the south face of the tower.  However, the mount the we got is made to mount on a corner.  We could also shift over to the corner that faces Roanoke, but I believe the U-bolts and corresponding holes are too small to fit around the corner of the tower.

We're also working with VT on figuring out and appropriate and efficient exit plan for Lee Hall.  It seems that the East Penthouse of Lee Hall will be getting an upgrade next summer and we will be in the way.

But for now, we wait on warm weather...it'll be hard to come by in the coming months...but we'll find it.