Transmitter climb - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: jimjim
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 15, 2010, 01:15:20 pm
content: Just found this amazing vid of some EEs in their natural habitat - scaling a massive transmission antenna!!enjoy

author: orbiter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2010, 02:34:51 pm
content: Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez. I wouldn't do that for a billion £'s

author: migsantiago
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2010, 03:16:15 pm
content: That's a great video.

author: Zad
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2010, 03:17:58 pm
content: Free climbing a lattice mast - he must be mad! My hands are sweating just watching him! How on earth do you insure people like that? By and large, these people aren't engineers but specialist riggers.It reminds me of a bloke who is famous here in the UK, called Fred Dibnah. He was a steeplejack who used to get up to some equally scary stuff, with even fewer concessions to safety.

author: orbiter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2010, 03:19:14 pm
content: Ah yea.. Poor Fred. He was a great bloke.

author: JohnS_AZ
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2010, 03:24:44 pm
content: Very cool video. (But I doubt that the guys are EEs)The Natonal Geographic Channel has a program called "Worlds Toughest Fixes"In a recent show they replaced a 7,000 pound broadcast antenna at the top of a 2,000 foot tower.It was pretty amazing to watch.http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/worlds-toughest-fixes/3564/Overview#tab-Overview

author: migsantiago
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2010, 03:40:03 pm
content: Quote from: JohnS_AZ on September 15, 2010, 03:24:44 pmAnother great one.Cameramen are more in danger than show presenters. They have to be carrying a big camera and stand in dangerous places filming another guy.

author: David
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2010, 06:32:06 pm
content: I honestly found it difficult to watch that...heights definitely aren't for me!

author: DavidDLC
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2010, 07:55:21 pm
content: You know what they say, don't look down when climbing.Probably that will apply when you start doing this type of jobs, once you are experienced I will say you have no problems doing it.

author: GeoffS
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 15, 2010, 09:56:42 pm
content: Here's a video involving height and electricity!High Voltage Cable InspectionListen for the guy's comment towards the end of the clip.

author: migsantiago
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2010, 11:49:45 pm
content: LOL, nice ending comments

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 16, 2010, 12:40:23 am
content: The video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by theonlineengineer!I've done stuff like that, can get scary when the wind picks up and the tower sways several meters side to side!Dave.

author: migsantiago
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 16, 2010, 01:59:42 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on September 16, 2010, 12:40:23 amThis is why they deleted it:http://www.theonlineengineer.org/TheOLEBLOG/Quote

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 16, 2010, 08:36:28 am
content: There are some links to mirrors of the video towards the end ofthis pageI think it had something like 850K views before it was pulled so it ain't going away any time soon - Once it's out there, it's out there forever!

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 16, 2010, 10:04:46 am
content: I don't have too much of a problem with heights but I think the tower swaying would make me motion sick and the fact that one false move and it could all be over would worry me.I've just watched another film linked by someone who commented on this one, she's totally crazy!Having said that, I've done some pretty dodgy manoeuvres on my motorbike before and I've climbed some pretty tall trees when I was younger.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 16, 2010, 12:15:12 pm
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on September 16, 2010, 08:36:28 amAwesome!Not climbing, and not nearly as high or scary, but me abseiling Empress Falls you saw in the Fluke video:Dave.

author: DJPhil
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2010, 08:47:08 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on September 16, 2010, 12:15:12 pmNot scary, bah!I spent a week or so learning with a military crew on their training wall when I was about eleven. I don't think the practice wall was even fifty feet high. At the end of the week I did a perfect Geneva all the way down, fell to my knees, and barfed from fright. I climbed taller trees before and since, and that's fine, I just can't move that fast relative to the ground and feel good about it.A decade ago I tried to find a job in the great flat plains where I live changing beacon lights as in the video, but there were none to be had. I think it'd be great fun.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2010, 09:30:49 am
content: I'd be interested to see some statistics.I'm pretty sure servicing radio masts isn't the most dangerous job in the world, it's probablt much safer than fishing. I suppose the difference is there are virtually no injuries but there's the odd fatality every now and then which is probably down to someone falling due to bad weather conditions or being struck by lightning.

author: Time
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2010, 05:26:02 pm
content: The video made it onto today's big thing where it hasn't been pulled yet:http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2010/09/15I see mike beat me to it with his mirrors. Sorry for the repost.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 17, 2010, 06:00:06 pm
content: It looks like the copyright cops are fighting a loosing battle.Don't get me wrong, I don't have any problem with people getting paid for their creative works, I just think the law is too much in favour of the creator (read big film, software and recording companies) and not the consumer (Joe average who gets banged up for downloading a little bit of music).

author: ArtemisGoldfish
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2010, 07:30:29 am
content: I've only gone up a 40 foot (a bit more than 12 meters) tall tower, and even at that relatively low height, it was scary. You can be completely safe, both on the tower with lanyards and carabiners and on the climb up with a cable grab and stuff, but it's still spooky, climbing up and just being able to look through the tower and see everything on the other side. It's a heart-pounder.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 18, 2010, 06:10:39 pm
content: Quote from: tumutbound on September 15, 2010, 09:56:42 pmso what exactly was he doing on the wires ? cool concept, of course birds sit on the wires isolated from ground and safe, so can we

author: DJPhil
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2010, 07:03:43 pm
content: Quote from: Simon on September 18, 2010, 06:10:39 pmI caught a special on this on the science channel some time back, so I can sort of answer from memory.For the most part they're inspecting the mechanical condition of the wire, standoffs, and insulators. I'm not sure who talked who into using a helicopter, but it's proven to be relatively safe and very, very fast for this sort of work. If they find something serious they can look into it further and plan downtime for a fix. Without this method they'd be stuck inspecting by eye from a helicopter and sending workers to climb up the towers to check things. There's a huge amount of transmission wiring across North America, and anything that helps at least put a dent in how much maintenance is needed is welcomed heartily.Hope that helps explain.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 18, 2010, 08:26:28 pm
content: yea well explained, it looked like he was inspecting the wire itself but I couldn't beleive they crawl the whole network ?, I've seen a similar video before but i don't think the guy was getting onto the wires just sitting on the platform checking on the overall condition, I think mainly for tree's growing into the wires

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2010, 12:16:37 am
content: Looks like they'veadmitted they can't put the genie back in the box...I'm sure this guy could get a decent amount of cash for TV rights to this.The original is still down, but...

author: marianoapp
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2010, 12:52:14 am
content: damn, that was scary.. and i used to be a skydiver

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 19, 2010, 06:47:46 am
content: cricky and that's going up, what about coming down ?

author: Time
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2010, 08:58:35 am
content: He says alot of them come from the southern united states.Ya darn right

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2010, 09:00:32 am
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on September 19, 2010, 12:16:37 amYes, more often than not the creators benefit from their work ending up on the Internet.QuoteThat's probably true, I also imagine it's common for people below to be injured by falling tools, especially the engineer's assistant working below.When I think about it, when I climbed tall trees as I child I was probably putting myself in more danger, even though I wasn't anywhere near as high. For a start, I was inexperienced, then there's the fact that I didn't know if a branch could safely take my weight or not and a fall would've easily been deadly, even from 5 meters (although I know I've climbed much higher than that) and there were lots of branches on the way down for me to have seriously injured myself on so I doubt I would've survived a fall from the top of a 10m conifer.Anyway, I've grown out of climbing trees now but I'll feel much safer climbing a 100m transmitter mast than a 10m conifer.

author: TheWelly888
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2010, 01:42:18 pm
content: This clip has gone viral, another forum ( a model railway one! ) I'm on has a thread about it!The wide angle lens exaggerates the height somewhat but I was going,"Urgh!"I can see that he appears to be breaking several safety regulations in that clip and can understand why he wanted it down.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2010, 08:28:01 pm
content: Quote from: TheWelly888 on September 19, 2010, 01:42:18 pmI will never understand the idea of doing something wrong or stupid and filming oneself or taking photos while doing so. And then putting it on facebook or the like.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2010, 09:09:54 pm
content: He said something about climbing without a safety line being legal on the video but I don't know whether that's true or not.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 19, 2010, 09:15:05 pm
content: well to be honest climbing such a structure does make using safety lines hard, usually they are coming from above but someone has to get up there in the first place to set it up and that's a long line. it looked like he was using some sort of mobile line to hook himself when he paused for a breather, probably a fair compromise given the circumstances

author: djsb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2010, 09:50:35 pm
content: I wonder how Fred Dibnah put up those ladders? Must have had another person to help hold the ladders and carry them up one by one.Brave man and from my home town of Bolton too.

author: nixxon
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 06, 2013, 07:10:44 pm
content: These guys climb 1708 feet to reach the base of the 60 foot antenna.

author: ftransform
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2013, 12:44:17 am
content: I climbed 100ft before and I'd say I could do much more so long I have confidence in the design of the structure I am climbing.My dad used to climb the inside of tall smoke stack to get a nice view over the woods when he was younger. Now that was some crazy shit...You could hardly consider that thing to have a ladder.. more like spokes sticking out.I can't say i would like to climb that tower though. It seems poorly designed for a human to climb. I like handles ...