Climbing a tower

[k4kyv]

I have never been afraid of heights, but this gave me the willies.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f2d_1284588370

[K5IIA]

seem to me they would wear a parachute 

[K1JJ]

Geezzz... Once at 1600' out of the elevator, they really should be using a safety climbing cable mounted on the tower. That "free-climbing" stuff should have gone out with the Empire State Building in the 30's.   OSHA should be ashamed for allowing this to continue.

Even a budget-minded guy like me was able to add a cable to each tower here with a safety brake in case of a fall. For the price of 5/16" cable and a $100 brake snapped to your body harness you're safe.

They are using steel mast and spikes all the way to the top, so RF antenna pattern interference doesn't appear to be an issue. If it was, there are still good, strong cables available that are non-metal.

I fear for the safety of those climbers being pressured to free-climb spikes at 1700' to keep their jobs.

T

[Carl WA1KPD]

Parachute!  I'd need a big diaper

[k4kyv]

I fear for the safety of those climbers being pressured to free-climb spikes at 1700' to keep their jobs.

The video was originally posted on YouTube, but was pulled at the request of the poster.  Here is the explanation.

http://www.theonlineengineer.org/TheOLEBLOG/

But too late.  It was already all over the internet by then.

[KB2WIG]

Parachute!  I'd need a big diaper

I droped out when he mentioned no tieing into the structure.....

klc

[N8UH]

Wow. I don't care who you are... it's brown trousers time at that height... 

[k4kyv]

Actually it isn't really any worse than free-climbing a ham tower.  If you lose your grip or a bolt fails, you are just as dead from 100 feet as from 1700.

[W1ATR]

Yeah that free climbing crap is for the birds.

How much do these guys make doing that job anyway. It has to be a good bit to justify the risk.

[K1JJ]

Yeah that free climbing crap is for the birds.

How much do these guys make doing that job anyway. It has to be a good bit to justify the risk.

Back in '98, I had a crane and crew here to put up the free-standing pair of 190'ers. The bottom 20' section weighs 1500 pounds, so I needed help.  I got to know the crew. They were young guys in their 20's and were always talking about getting their own crew and going into biz putting up towers. They said they were getting about $10/hour to climb at the time. They would come to work in the morning complaining of how sore their muscles felt.

After the cell tower feeding frenzy in the 90's most of those guys lost their jobs and maybe moved onto higher paying steel working jobs, who knows? Now the building industry is in the tank too.

It's supply and demand. Seems technicians of many kinds get screwed while the bean counters get paid. This always changes - after a surplus and a cleanout, techs get in demand again.

T

[WA1GFZ]

I know a young guy who is 21 learning machining. His brother makes big bucks selling RVs, dumb as a post. I told the guy doing machining he will be in real demand in about 10 years. I was wrong he is in demand now after a year and a half.
I remember when there was a time I thought electronics was going to die, then it turned around.

[AB3L]

This puts my post last year about some local tower work at 640 ft. to shame. The transitions from one level to the next on this video make you hold your breath. This comes as he gropes around for a good hand hold before he goes up and over to the next section. The most thrilling part is when he hits the top, stands and then frees both hands to set the safety clamp on the static arrestor flange without being tied off, and with his buddy climbing and shaking the whole thing. No shakee knees there

[K1JJ]

The most thrilling part is when he hits the top, stands and then frees both hands to set the safety clamp on the static arrestor flange without being tied off, and with his buddy climbing and shaking the whole thing. No shakee knees there

Yep, it takes a certain mindset to pull it off without freaking out.

When I first climbed, I always looked at the ground and calculated if I would survive if I fell. This was less than 60' up. Then as I got higher I would get so nervous it would be hard to work. I knew if I fell it would be curtains.

A friend of mine, an experienced climber, said one day, "You wanna be a woman all your life?"   I got the message and after that starting climbing higher and higher with safety and proficiency. It's all a mind game.

For me the key is to look at the ground and view it as a foggy pastel. You see it but it doesn't register as real. This keeps the fear down for me.  When up at the top and I look out at another tower, this gives me the willies.

In contrast, I trained Craig/ZEQ to climb without fear right away.  I got him to free-climb the 190'er to the top on the first attempt, the first day. Man he had BA's. We didn't have any safety cables back then.  Some guys can naturally handle their fear right from the start.

T

[W9GT]

The most thrilling part is when he hits the top, stands and then frees both hands to set the safety clamp on the static arrestor flange without being tied off, and with his buddy climbing and shaking the whole thing. No shakee knees there

Yep, it takes a certain mindset to pull it off without freaking out.

When I first climbed, I always looked at the ground and calculated if I would survive if I fell. This was less than 60' up. Then as I got higher I would get so nervous it would be hard to work. I knew if I fell it would be curtains.

A friend of mine, an experienced climber, said one day, "You wanna be a woman all your life?"   I got the message and after that starting climbing higher and higher with safety and proficiency. It's all a mind game.

For me the key is to look at the ground and view it as a foggy pastel. You see it but it doesn't register as real. This keeps the fear down for me.  When up at the top and I look out at another tower, this gives me the willies.

In contrast, I trained Craig/ZEQ to climb without fear right away.  I got him to free-climb the 190'er to the top on the first attempt, the first day. Man he had BA's. We didn't have any safety cables back then.  Some guys can naturally handle their fear right from the start.

T

Arthritis kinda messed me up for doing much climbing anymore, but used to do quite a bit on my own, as well as friends' towers.  I always tried to "buckle in" when I needed to stop or before working at the top.  Fact is, however, while in motion, up or down, there wasn't anything holding me except my hands and feet hanging on to the tower.  

My tower is a portion of an old microwave tower built by TCC.  It is 80' high and has a 38" face, so it is plenty big enough to climb up the inside.  That makes it feel at least much safer, because if you would fall, you probably wouldn't go far before wedging against the sides.  That might be painful, but probably not fatal.  I used to run up and down that thing several times in a day and not really think too much about it.  Anyway...everyone should try to work as safely as possible.  Using a climbing/safety belt just makes good sense and it might save your life.

Those guys who work on those huge towers really earn their pay.  That looks down right scarey to say the least.  I just don't care to go much over 100 or 200 ft.  but I guess if you fell it wouldn't matter, it would still be that sudden stop at the bottom that would do you in.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[k4kyv]

One time I did a climb like that, at the age of 23.  I had agreed to change out the light bulbs on a 365' broadcast tower for 35 bucks.  I brought a climbing belt up with me, but the tower was large enough that I could climb up through the inside, and I didn't bother using the belt.  I had a bag with the bulbs tied to my belt, and free-climbed up the interior of the tower.  It took me about 45 minutes, but it was essentially like climbing a 365' ladder.  When I  reached the top, like the guy in the video, I had to wriggle to the outside the tower structure and over the top plate to get to the beacon. That was the scary part  Once I made that trek, I attached the climbing belt before attempting to change the bulb. I had to get the glass cover open, and the hardware was corroded, but I managed to get the thing open, change the bulb, and get it properly closed again.  Then I had to disengage the climbing belt, slip back over the top plate of the tower, to the interior, and begin my descent, which was almost as exhausting as the ascent.  I made it down OK and the tower lights worked properly.

I earned my lousy $35! Of course, this was in 1966, so a dollar would buy a lot more than would one of to-day's dollarettes.

I never climbed a tower again until about 15 years later when I put my own, 127' high. I felt pretty much at ease constructing mine, but I did it over a period of months, putting up a section or two on weekends when wx permitted, and maybe a few sections during the week when I had time. I did the whole thing single-handedly, with minimal help.  I started out with a crew of volunteer helpers, but that didn't work because everyone wanted to be boss. That's a sure way for someone to get hurt or killed. So after the first two sections, I did the rest on my own.

[K1JJ]

Interesting comments.

Funny that most of us worry about falling. Rarely does someone just "fall" off a tower. Serious injury is almost always the result of some large object getting caught, springing and releasing its energy. I've had a few close calls with broken ropes, large beams getting hung up in guys - but the worst is when taking something down, getting to the last bolt and it springs. This can rip your hands or face apart.  When stuff falls on guy wires, it can take a tower down too.

The "falling" off a tower is totally eliminated by having a cable stretched from top to bottom of the tower with a fall brake hooked to your full-body harness...period.  For many climbs I am clipped on all the time.  The real danger becomes having something BIG fall on you while you're belted on.

BTW, the worst tower injury I've had (only one, really) was when I let a 100' run of rotator cable unfold itself down the tower. I was holding the end of it. It unraveled into a free-fall and the sudden stop slammed my hand onto the tower crossbar. It ripped open a gash with blood pouring out of my index finger. My hand starting shaking, just like in the movies when someone gets shot. I taped it up with electrical tape and began the long climb down from 190'...   I was so POed at myself for making that stupid mistake. You can bet I watch out for that now.

T

[K1JJ]

Oh yeah, how fast we forget...

One time while pulling up one of my 40M Yagis, it got stuck. It released as my hand, holding the rope, got partially pulled into the main pulley. I ripped open the finger tips. I was very lucky indeed. I was working alone and would be calling 911 from the top. I can just see a fireman climbing up to get me released from that pulley. Or another alternative: An animal chewing off its own leg in a trap... cheeez.

Another time when adding a Rohn 45 tower section the flesh of my bicep got caught in the male/female junction of a set of legs as they slid together. I still have a 1" scar from that one. No blood, just severe bruising.

Other cuts and bruises, but nothing major.  It's always due to raising and lowering hardware, including tower sections.

T

[WA2TTP Steve]

I would like to know what they get paid to do this type of climbing.

[k7yoo]

This was definitely one that had me squirming to watch. Like most other hams I have been up a few towers but this was pretty much "over to top" (I couldn't resist). The part that got me was when they were up on the stick and it was wiggling around. It really puckers the sphincter!!.
Consider this for a moment:
Most of these tall structures have been built within the span of one lifetime. What happens when they "wear out" or need major work? How are they going to be taken down? The Empire State building is getting pretty old....what is the life span of these structures? They are not like the Great Wall, or the Pyramids.

[W2PFY]

I may have the nerve to do something like that when I was 15. My dad put up a 130' guy- wired TV tower . I used to go up on a platform at 100 feet and hid from my brothers & sisters. After they couldn't find me, my mother would come out and look for me. I would say hi ma, she would look up and say,"you better not fall off that thing" and go back inside. Then we still had the Airway Beacon's when I was a kid. The one near us was about 75 feet high and self supporting. It had one big rotating beacon on it with two 1000 watt bulbs inside and some large signal beacons position in in the direction of travel for the airmail guys. There was also a landing strip at each beacon.

It had a ladder strait up with a hatch that had to be opened. It was a bit of trouble pushing it up but I did it and would spend hours on that thing. Being the high point around there my dad and buddies would take a TV up there and cases of beer and watch the fights. There was an outlet where you could plug your TV in but you also had to pack you antenna along.

So with that experience and walking on high wooden beams in barns, I could have been trained then but you couldn't get me to do it for a tractor trailer truck filled with 100 dollar bills now

[k4kyv]

A few years ago it was reported that one or two 600' steel towers that had been erected in the 1920's somewhere on the East Coast, L.I. or NJ IIRC, were taken down. It was said that they had been designed for something like a 800-900 year life expectancy.

The Eiffel Tower was completed in 1899 for the Paris Exposition. Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years; it was to be dismantled in 1919, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down, and part of the original contest rules for designing the tower was that it could be easily dismantled, but the tower proved valuable as a radio communications tower, so it was allowed to remain. It had great strategic value for the military during WW1.

Interestingly, the Eiffel Tower is made of "puddle iron", not steel.  So is the skeleton of the Statue of Liberty, and many bridges built in the 19th century.

BTW, a bomb threat made 2 days ago against the Eiffel Tower, which caused an evacuation, has proved to be a hoax.

One question.  What is a guided tower?

[W2PFY]

One question.  What is a guided tower?

I guess I meant Guy-wired? Please tell me what is correct in French Of course.

Never heard of puddle iron.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puddle_iron

[k4kyv]

The term is "guyed".  I have often heard people incorrectly use the term "guide wires".

Perhaps a less confusing word would be "stays", the nautical equivalent term.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy-wire

[K1JJ]

It all depends on the sex of the tower. There are guy wires and there are gal wires.  And some towers use both.

Then there are self-supporting Eunuch towers that have no use for guys or gals at all.

T

[KB2WIG]

"  Some guys can naturally handle their fear right from the start. "

I'm one of them. I have no fear of climing a tower; I know there's no way in hell  I'm ever going to do it.


klc