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Site work begins last summer. This way beats digging by hand!
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Backfill of guy anchors. 8-ft x 8-ft x 8-ft holes; 26 yards of concrete.
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The top of the gin pole.
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The 140 ft. Pirod tower is constructed in August. Up goes one of the 1300-pound sections.
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Precision hydraulic ground control. Note that the operator is radio active.
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The lonely, completed tower with gin pole is QRX for more parts to arrive.
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Paul designed this 15-foot, 11-inch diameter, 5/8-inch wall pipe as the mount for the wind generator. Paul included closed steps in his design. It was manufactured by Wisconsin Body and Hoist.
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Len Kreyer, N9QIP and his Skywave Tower crew arrive in October to do some heavy lifiting. Len operates a network of amateur repeaters that span across Wisconsin.
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The 1,000-pound generator mount is installed on top of the tower.
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The generator arrives, and is ready for assembly. It's a 10kW Class Wind Turbine manufactured in Norman, OK by Bergey Windpower.
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The last blade is assembled to the generator.
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Paul and his helper ride up on the winch.
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The gin pole is raised above the pipe mount.
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Up goes the 1050-pound generator. Len used a second winch to "tag" the generator and blades away from the tower and guys.
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The final mounting.
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The generator was tied into the power grid by Eric Pipkin, W9RKN and his crew from Sparta.
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This is the "magic box," that converts "wild 3-phase" into 110/220, 60Hz power. Paul was highly impressed by the wiring done by Eric and his crew.
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Paul has noted that real-time power output runs between 7 and 11kW on windy days. The generator's specifications predict a monthly output of over 1,200 kWh, for an average wind speed of 10 mph.