Refer to this field map for Westlake Farms for the following discussion. Note that the tens and hundreds digits indicate the section number.
The towers would be located near the SE corner of field 22150. Here are photos with views to the W, NW, and N from this corner. The five fields: 22040, 22030, 22090, 22100, 22150 are all fallow. (Field 22160 is lightly watered to make tall grass for bird habitat.) When I was there in early May, these fields had somewhat different surface cover. Here are photos of the edge between 22150 and 22100, 22040 and 22090, and 22040 and 22090. I also have photos of the surface for 22090, 22040
For this site, the towers would have to be powered by a generator, since the nearest power would be over 3 miles away. We would use RF ethernet for the data transmission to the trailer 4 miles away, which is within the specification of 5 miles between sites using a pair UNI-16 antennas which we have. It would be a trip of 5.5 miles to drive from the base to the towers over roads which are not supposed to be driven at over 15 mph (for dust reduction), but which I drove at about 35 mph during my survey.
I left California thinking that this was the best location for SGS.
There are more irrigation canals between these fields, and the "PUMP DITCH" along the S edge of this field is high. Generator power would still be needed at the tower, but the distance from the base would be only 2 miles. RF ethernet data connection still would be used and the 2 mile distance should be well within the 5 mile specification. Hwy 41 gets a lot of traffic and is 2.5 miles upwind.
I haven't spoken with the farmer specifically about either of these two sites and don't know what his reaction will be to this base location or operating a generator for the towers. I also don't know if the surface conditions will change by September.
The towers would be located in the SE corner of field 21087, which currently is growing garbanzo beans (see a diagram of these fields), but will be harvested stubble by September. The fetch would be about a mile over this field. Irrigation canals run every 1/2 mile N-S here.
We have not yet decided on how power would be provided to the towers. It is possible that we would lay out a mile of cable along the road (about 1/2 mile longer than for EBEX). It also is possible that we would use a generator. Data communication would be via RF ethernet using UNI-16 and OMNI-8 antennae which are specified for a distance of 1.7 mile.