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Author Topic: Maximum Gin Pole  (Read 17082 times)
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AB3L
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« on: November 04, 2009, 10:33:54 PM »

WQED has been getting their new HD antenna installed near my work. I have never seen this type of replacement done before. The other antenna on the tower was done about two years ago but with a Carson air lift. One of the guys doing the work this month said that Carson wouldn't come back to this location for some reason so up went the pole.
The contractor was Vertical Technology out of Hagerstown. They were there for about five weeks getting it rigged up and working around weather. At one point when they got the pole up for a look they found that the "T" on top was deflecting so a set of support legs had to be fabbed up which added more time. It was neat to follow the cable runs and pulley installations up there at 640 feet to get the pole up there. At one point the guys had to climb down to the bottom of the pole to steer the antenna safely around as it went down. I can't imagine how the hell you can do that but my respect goes out to them. Free and easy...


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K1JJ
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« Reply #1 on: November 04, 2009, 10:47:05 PM »

That's some pictures.

Back in the late 90's I got to know some of these guys who did the cell phone monopoles and other big tower work for a private tower installation company.

It seems the grunts who do most of the work are young guys, usually in their 20's or early 30's. The ones I talked with said they were paid about $10 an hour.  The rigger, who's the brains of the field operation (sometimes the owner) gets paid better and really knows his craft.  There's a lot of anticipation and thinking ahead required.

The ones who make the big money are of course the owners of the company. The young workers I talked with were always talking about, "getting their own crew someday" and this job was just temporary...  Grin  They were usually very sore from the previous day and put in full days of climbing. Really a hard job physically and mentally.  

Just like technicians repairing electronics, these heros are way underpaid and under appreciated by the general public.  I'll bet 499 out of 500 people would rather slide down a razor blade bare-ass into a vat of alcohol before hanging off a 600' tower for eight hours...

T
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AB3L
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« Reply #2 on: November 04, 2009, 10:48:09 PM »

more


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WA3VJB
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« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2009, 05:23:22 AM »


That's some kind of job.

NatGeo or one of those shows had a feature on a guy who inspects the high voltage transmission lines via helicopter. 

He gets out on a platform type thing and just goes along while the pilot hangs around.

The wires stay hot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ix0Gz0ABaI
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The Slab Bacon
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« Reply #4 on: November 05, 2009, 08:15:02 AM »

A few years ago, they had an accident here in Baltimore while putting the new DTV antennas up on the "Candalabra" tower, some 1300 or 1400 feet in the air.

I never really appreciated the massiveness of the structure at the top of the tower
(even being parked right below it) untill they showed some news video of it. (I assume it was taken with a helicopter)

You really couldn't see that much of it from the ground, but from the news footage you could see a full sized crane mounted to the top of the 3-sided upper superstructure. IIRC, some bolts sheared off and the crane was in danger of falling.

What really gave the massiveness away to me was a shot of the crane with it's rear door open, and you could see that there was a 4-71 Detroit Diesel engine powering it! ! !

IIRC they evacuated that whole part of town until they got the crane sured up. Which leaves me with another question: how in the hell did they get the crane up there? ? (I assume it was only temporary)

                                                               the Slab Bacon
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The Slab Bacon
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« Reply #5 on: November 05, 2009, 08:20:19 AM »

Besides the TV broadcast stuff, there is also a bunch of commercial 2-way stuff up there as well. Several of my friends that are 2-way techs have told me that it is the scariest climb they have ever had to do.

They tell me you have to climb about 100' to get on the "elevator". They tell me it is so rickety that you make the entire elevator ride (both ways) hanging on to the emergency brake handle for dear life! ! !
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W9GT
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« Reply #6 on: November 05, 2009, 08:45:54 AM »

Man...that makes my palms sweat, just looking at the pictures!  Those guys deserve to be well paid, that's for sure.  I can't imagine doing that for 10 bucks an hour.  I wouldn't do it for $1000 per hour.

I have talked to some local guys who did tower work at some of the local TV stations.  One guy climbed up the 800' + TV tower at night (that includes going to the top of the antenna on the top) and changing the light bulbs.  Oh man.....I can't imagine doing that.....and it was when we were having sub-zero temperatures!  I used to run up and down my 80' tower quite often and thought I was hot stuff,   but 800' ?? I don't think so!!!  Physically exhausting, mentally challenging, and just not worth the huge risk to life and limb.  Dirty job, but I guess someone has to do it.

73,  Jack, W9GT
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« Reply #7 on: November 05, 2009, 09:34:32 AM »

End result is the same for falling 80' or 800': DEAD!!!!  Tongue
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K1JJ
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« Reply #8 on: November 05, 2009, 09:43:57 AM »

Physically exhausting, mentally challenging, and just not worth the huge risk to life and limb.  Dirty job, but I guess someone has to do it.
73,  Jack, W9GT

I remember reading in the past year that tower climbing was at the top of the list of the most dangerous jobs in the whirl.  (per profession/capita killed)

I think part of the problem is that there's really no testing or certification for climbers - if you can climb and can BS your way in, they will hire you.

Back in '98 after putting up my own smaller towers on my own, (including concrete work)  the owner of a cell tower company was impressed by my work. Jokingly, I axed him if he would hire me to climb for his company. He immediately said YES!  I was in no way qualified to work on those commercial structures, nor had any experience at all rigging the cranes and massive gin poles.  IE, I would have killed myself and the crew if they let me at it... Shocked  Though, they were street-wise and wuda found out real quikly I was just a ham and eggs tower guy... Grin

Yep, it takes a certain mental stability to climb and work up there.  Humans are naturally very afraid of heights and it's against the grain for most who try -almost like dealing with being buried alive and claustrophobia.

I don't know how people can jump off onto bugee cords. After all the training to resist falling off a tower, jumping  seems terrifying to me. Some inexperienced people (even young women) can do it w/o much hesitation. Amazing to me.

T
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« Reply #9 on: November 05, 2009, 09:47:17 AM »

Quote
End result is the same for falling 80' or 800': DEAD!!!! 

When I worked for Smith in Cleveland in the 70's we measured height differences in "seconds to impact"!


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WA3VJB
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« Reply #10 on: November 05, 2009, 10:35:22 AM »

Right when I was halfway thinking they should put inflatable landing zones at the base of the tower, I get this email from Mike, W4AEE, with a link to an

INFLATABLE TOWER


http://towers.ltaprojects.com/LTA_Towers/LTA_Tower_Home.html


It looks like one of those crazy inflatable clown display advertisements that whip around at the side of the road in retail districts, the kind that distract people from staying in their lane or otherwise cooperating with traffic.

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WA1GFZ
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« Reply #11 on: November 05, 2009, 12:40:53 PM »

2 way shops usually have crap safety equipment. When I went to motorola and saw their shlock operation I told them to not expect me to climb towers.
Hire a rigger. Boss was a candy a$$ and I never told him that I had a tower.
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WBear2GCR
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« Reply #12 on: November 05, 2009, 01:11:36 PM »



HEY!! WHAT IS THIS GUY DOING??


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K1JJ
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« Reply #13 on: November 05, 2009, 01:16:01 PM »

2 way shops usually have crap safety equipment. When I went to motorola and saw their shlock operation I told them to not expect me to climb towers. Hire a rigger. Boss was a candy a$$ and I never told him that I had a tower.


Back in the mid-70's,  the same brand name shop (MSS) had me climbing their guyed Rohn 45 towers up on John Tom Mtn. One tower had a "temporary" set of 1/8" guys from Radio shack - all rusted. They expected me to climb it.  I had no experience at all at the time and was scared to death.

A second shop I worked at a coupla years later wanted me to climb a 400'er in Springfield to troubleshoot an antenna. The TV station had to shut down the transmitter so I could climb. What a circus.  Barely made it up to 250' and the management said the transmitter needed to go back on.  I barely knew what I was doing and used a leather waist-type belt... the type that breaks your back if you fall.


As far as falling... it is rare that an accident occurs due to a simple fall to the ground. These days most of us are attached to a fall arrest system at all times. What happens is a human mistake like something heavy falling on the guy wires or on workers/climbers, something getting stuck and suddenly releasing or a tower collapsing for whatever reason.  Even if there was a safety net below, most of the damage is already done to the body due to buckling steel, falling on the guys themselves or any of the other mid air mishaps. (Like a Russian submarine hitting the tower while you're strapped off)

T
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K1JJ
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« Reply #14 on: November 05, 2009, 01:17:48 PM »



HEY!! WHAT IS THIS GUY DOING??


He's talking to the photographer on his radio: "Hey, get a shot of this - look ma, no hands!"  (I'm serious...  Shocked)

T
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WD8BIL
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« Reply #15 on: November 05, 2009, 01:26:15 PM »

Quote
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote from: WBear2GCR on Today at 01:11:36 PM


HEY!! WHAT IS THIS GUY DOING??



He's talking to the photographer on his radio: "Hey, get a shot of this - look ma, no hands!"  (I'm serious...  )

Future Darwin award winner!

Hey guys, watch this!
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W4EWH
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« Reply #16 on: November 05, 2009, 01:29:08 PM »


When I worked for Smith in Cleveland in the 70's we measured height differences in "seconds to impact"!


... and apparently used "Interior" paint on the exterior of the tower ...  Wink

Bill W1AC
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AB3L
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« Reply #17 on: November 05, 2009, 03:18:35 PM »

I wanted to ask about that but they are gone. I interpreted this as a mental check trusting his own proceedure. Looks like he is strapped off to the top section. No better way to check the harness than to lean back and see what happens. Shocked
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Bill, KD0HG
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« Reply #18 on: November 05, 2009, 03:53:33 PM »

I will never forget the time 10 years ago when the 3" Heliax of one of my FMs arced and burned about a hundred feet up on a mountaintop tower. It was Christmas Eve and a real emergency. I called my tower guy, discussed overtime pay and he agreed to meet me up there.

He showed up by himself, without any crew.

When I asked him about that, he said that he wasn't about to send his guys out on a job that he wouldn't do himself and they deserved some time off.

It was 15 degrees, the wind was howling and it was spitting snow. He stuffed his coveralls and gloves with heat packs, climbed up and installed a splice kit on the line for me. Over two hours hanging on that stick without a break.

Who wouldn't want to work for a guy like that? 50+ years old, a great boss and one tough guy.
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« Reply #19 on: November 05, 2009, 04:32:31 PM »

The guy I worked for could barely drive to a sight without damage to the truck. I spent a couple hours on Mt. Lincon at about zero one night when some cop stuffed his mic in the seat, keyed the radio and jammed the whole system for hours. We even called everyone off duty and asked guys to check. AH opened his door hours later and all of a sudden the system went quiet. A 20 hour day close to zero outside. 
Climbing a tower now that is the balls.
Tom we must be talking about the same shlock artists just 20 years difference in time.
I thank God I'm inside whenever I have a bad day and don't have a beeper
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AB3L
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« Reply #20 on: November 06, 2009, 07:02:52 AM »

I called my tower guy, discussed overtime pay and he agreed to meet me up there.
He showed up by himself, without any crew.

When I asked him about that, he said that he wasn't about to send his guys out on a job that he wouldn't do himself and they deserved some time off.

Who wouldn't want to work for a guy like that? 50+ years old, a great boss and one tough guy.
Bill, the guy that did the first antenna changeout on the same tower in my pictures is now dead. I posted on here about it about a year ago. He was tearing down a 200 foot tower north of Pittsburgh. Seasoned veteran. Didn't want to wait that one day for his son and another guy to show. Went up himself and started cutting and throwing metal. Something shifted and down he went. Like we all find, you do the same thing for so long you get too confident and don't think as hard.
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