Served at murphy dome from july 65 to july 66 worked on the power plant/water plant.Worked with a civilian a philco tech rep.

NADRM calling...

We've just let the contract to have our AN/FPS-18 antenna assembly media blasted, primed and painted. The interior lower level of the AN/FPS-26 tower will also be wet-blasted, primed and painted on this same contract.

We have the engineer and architects drawings and specs for the new antenna support tower to be built in front of the FPS-26 tower. We are getting a cost estimate for this, and should have a contract for that structure in the next couple of weeks. This is very high on our "to-do" list for spring.

We'll have to move the FPS-18 antenna and components out of the tower to blast & paint. We will likely be having a work day "on the hill" to do this - not a small job. If you live in the general area of Bellefontaine, and can help, let me know by email: hq@afrmaonline.org, and I'll let you know when this is going to happen.

We had a very productive meeting with the engineer & architect. The architect was John Freytag, and my ancient core memory has misplaced the engineer's name. Rich and Robert were also both there. We have decided to get Harold Marker & Randy involved as general contractors. The architect knows them well, and has worked with them.

Because of the amount of work required to restore the structural integrity of the antenna supports in the tower, we've decided to scrub the plans to mount out AN/FPS-18 antenna on the roof. All the structural cross members of the tower supports were cut out when the stairs were movedd to the current location - huge task, and a lot of expense. We'll be mounting it out front of the tower (across the parking area from the garage doors). The antenna adapter will be placed on reinforced concrete pillars, high enough to discourage kids from trying to climb the antenna and surrounded with chain-link & barbed wire. The engineer will be prepping drawings for these pillars so that we can get that task started before working on the interior of the tower. The engineer got measurements from the adapter which will be mounted on the pillars.

We've got a plan going to re-side the lower levels up to the original siding with an insulating metal sandwich siding and to get the stairs moved back to approximately the original location, along with removal of the old stairs. We've also spec'd an exit door (7'x6' double door where the "back" garage door is now), with one that will be alarmed as an emergency exit, doors to open outward. We talked about getting proper, code-compliant his and hers latrines done. More to come on that, not a lot of time spent discussing it. I think it will go on the north wall about next to the electrical power panels, with that all being enclosed.

The mezz is to be left at its current dimensions. The railing will be replaced with some stuff that Rich uses in the data center, that's essentially a "prisoner-proof" mesh. It will be about 42" high or so, not all the way to the ceiling. Entry doors will be in the front, in the area of the center garage door. The front facade will be at least partially the split-face concrete block that Rich likes so well, and will include some windows.

We also discussed heating and cooling, and have decided on the "twin mini-splits" (I think that's it) for both heating and cooling, that both Rich and Robert like really well. They are modular, and relatively inexpensive. They can be installed as needed without a lot of adaptation taking place to install them.

This work isn't cheap, We've figured the engineering/architectural cost alone at about $18,000 or in that neighborhood. Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated. This cost is covered in our current budget, but will hit the checkbook pretty hard. Very convenient to use the GoFundMe above left.

There will be additional meetings with the architect to iron out details. More to come as this progresses, stay tuned.

Gene