1500' TV Tower - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Homer J Simpson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 02:05:31 am
content: No way.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 03:00:24 am
content: Seen this before, looks fun!There was land with a 300' tower for sale about an hour from where I live, and it was very tempting to buy it, was in an unorganized township which means you can pretty much build what you want without needing permits, and taxes are super low. I decided to hold off though. My goal would have been to rent space off the tower but I informed myself and found out it would be a conflict of interest with the company I work for so it kinda ruined my plans.

author: LaserSteve
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 03:02:46 am
content: Oh, really old Batwing array, aka Super Turnstyle. cool.At least he's smart and climbing properly with the dual hooks.Steve

author: cvanc
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 03:09:27 am
content: Oh HELL no...

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 04:07:26 am
content: If you wanted me to climb that thing, you'd have to put a gun to my head - but that would only be while climbing within the structure.Once you wanted me to climb outside - I'd just tell you to pull the trigger.If no such extreme persuasions were in play, then this:Quote from: cvanc on November 07, 2018, 03:09:27 am

author: ajb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 04:32:49 am
content: Looks like fun! Heck of a workout, though, probably 30 minutes of straight climbing, and the same to get back down!

author: JackJones
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 04:55:38 am
content: When it comes to tower climbing videos, I don't think anything beats this one:https://youtu.be/2A_h2AjJaMw?t=21

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 05:08:24 am
content: That's over 450 metres inpropermeasurements.

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 05:56:32 am
content: That's over "You've got to be *&***$##^%!! kidding me" inanymeasurements.

author: jh15
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 06:34:35 am
content: I agree JackJones,That one was on a broadcast engineering blog I was on. It was taken down at one time.Freehanding is frowned upon by OSHA, your management, etc. But the new double hook junk tires you more and makes you unsafe in other ways.I think the double hook was implanted because of the cell tower boom, making many hires less skilled and had to be reigned in.Another broadcast engineer said when hiring a tower climber nowadays would ask for a valid driver's licence. Seems many applying for a climb are drunk drivers convicts, and will do anything for a few bucks.

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 10:59:39 am
content: Any ham radio operator would love to have one one of these towers, maybe a little shorter to enjoy the optimal ground plane effect for HF.I once built a 65 foot tower on my 5 acres in the country, which supported a home brew 8 element LPDA with a 30 foot boom and the longest element was 33 feet. Rotatable and guyed with dacron rope. Low SWR from 13 MHz to about 30 MHz. It was the best antenna ever. Even so, it scared the crap out me me climbing it. The QRN was nothing, except for the odd electric fence noise and atmospheric noise. I miss that antenna badly.Maybe when I retire, I will move back the country and pour $100K into a new tower and antenna farm. But the difficulty would not be the height or the cost, but the wife who would not see such a project at the top of the to do list.

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 01:41:48 pm
content: Quote from: JackJones on November 07, 2018, 04:55:38 amThat scared the crap out of me and I am sitting in my office chair!

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 01:54:07 pm
content: The music and the effects were beautiful. That is such a long way up. One must have to be very careful about safety.At least it has guy wires, which make it fairly secure from high winds, etc, as towers go. Where is it? Did they say where that tower is?

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 04:53:15 pm
content: It's terrifying for sure, however I think by the time you get to around 200 feet the next 1200 feet wouldn't really be that much different and might even get easier. I know for me whenever I fly I sometimes get a bit of vertigo looking down out the window when the plane is really low and I can see all the small buildings and cars driving around and stuff but then as it gets higher the fact that I'm up in the air becomes less noticeable.I'm sure one also gets used to it. I've been up the mast of my dad's sailboat a few times to work on things and for the first bit it's unsettling but once I've been up there for a few minutes I kind of tune out the fact that I'm 40 feet above the deck and don't really notice. Until that is somebody moves around down below, small movements of the boat are greatly amplified up there.

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 05:13:21 pm
content: I generally do not consider myself afraid of heights. I have no issues standing on the roof of a house, for example. I actually like watching out the windows when my plane descends, I think it's neat as you get low enough to distinguish cars moving on the roads - and trying to figure out just what particular road we are passing over when landing in an area I am familiar with. Or flying around at a relatively low altitude in a light plane just sightseeing.But climbing one of these towers? Even if I was in incredible physical condition? No way in hell.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 05:16:51 pm
content: Quote from: Brumby on November 07, 2018, 04:07:26 amI'd climb on the outside, but I'd bring the gun with me in case I fall off, I can shoot myself in the head before I hit the ground.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 07, 2018, 07:11:07 pm
content: If you bring a big enough gun you can maybe shoot the ground a couple times before you hit to increase your chance of survival.

author: LaserSteve
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2018, 12:39:20 am
content: If you want scary, there is a free climbing one with no safety gear similar to "Stairway to Heaven". I don't endorse stupidity nor creating widows and orphans.225 foot was enough for me, and that was AT&T Microwave style, not a narrow one.When you get older, its not only "Hell No", but "Why did I EVER" do that.Steve

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2018, 02:55:29 am
content: I am generally of the "Oh Hell No" crowd, but a couple of decades ago I had a job that required work at the top of a 300 foot (100 meter for you units bigots) tower. You do get used to it after a while. At least you get over the part where you have to pry your fingers off of handholds to get to the next position. But I still am much happier closer to the ground!

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2018, 05:55:21 am
content: Over the past few months they've been building a new high rise apartment/condo building across the street from my office. I remember watching them installing the outer cladding, these guys had a safety harness but they were laying on the ground leaning their torso out over the edge to reach down and install the flashing. It made me dizzy just watching it, they were up around the 10th-14th floors at the time.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2018, 06:36:22 am
content: Back in the mid '90s, I had occasion to climb a 145m (475ft) self supporting tower in connection with my position as Transmitter Tech.The bottom part of this type of tower is not too bad, pretty,much like a building without cladding.The ladder shakes a bit on the first bit along the leg, but after the first level, it feels more secure.Those first couple of levels are quite nice, you can stroll around, or sit down for a rest.As the climb moves into near vertical it gets harderYou are a bit pooped by the time you reach the last (very small) level, where you go to another ladder whichgoes up behind the antenna panels, but it is then only a short climb to the very top, where you stand on part of the tower frame to replace the top clearance lamp.There is no chance of falling inside the ladder cage of the one I climbed, as there is an anti-fall device, in the form of a track up the centre of the rungs, which mates with a trolley attached to your climbing belt.The top bit, behind the antenna panels, has no cage or safety device, so you are back to climbing free, hooking on, when you need to.And it is bloodycoldup there!That wicked Westerly wind, known as the "Fremantle Doctor" is at full strength up there on the Scarp, once you get above the cover of the trees.It is what we call a "lazy wind"-----It doesn't bother going round you, it goesthroughyou!This means that your tongue starts hanging out for a hot cup of coffee, so naturally you start to climb down fast as you can.The safety device doesn't like this, however, so it lets you get moving, then "stops you falling", giving you an almighty wrench to the back!I must admit that I felt a bit proud of myself the first time I climbed the tower, until I looked across at the Ch2 tower, where there was some work being carried on.There they were, Riggers all over the outside of the thing, like aphids on a rose bush!It put my climb back into perspective.

author: airfilterbag
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 08, 2018, 07:15:02 am
content: Is this dangerous?

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2018, 07:18:37 am
content: Quote from: airfilterbag on November 08, 2018, 07:15:02 amIt was quite possibly fatal before modern safety gear came to be required in most civilized jurisdictions.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2018, 07:26:17 am
content: Maybe I'd climb it if I was allowed to take a parachute with me.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2018, 04:40:01 pm
content: I doubt a parachute would do you much good. You'd likely hit the ground before it fully deployed, or crash into the tower on the way down.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 08, 2018, 06:14:48 pm
content: One of those flying squirrel suits and a parachute would be a better bet. That would be fun as hell!And yes it's cold up there. CDMA cellular radios used to be on the ground, but HSPA radios have to be in the tower due to it being more sensitive to impedance. Less coax = less losses. The issue with the radio being up there is it gets very cold and it causes VSWR issues. The cellular NOC used to call us asking us to send a tech. Uhh what do you want the tech to do, climb the tower with a blow dryer?It's -40 at ground level, it's probably -50 up there. Ya it's cold. lol.

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2018, 11:34:45 pm
content: Yes, because the cellular subcontracting companies pressure their workers to go so fast, so very fast many - thinking they are smart enough to not need to, don't use safety equipment and fall. The large numbers of these deaths are the industry's ugly secret.Quote from: airfilterbag on November 08, 2018, 07:15:02 am

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2018, 03:42:05 am
content: Quote from: JackJones on November 07, 2018, 04:55:38 amHoly shit!

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2018, 03:01:21 pm
content: Please read this:https://www.propublica.org/article/cell-tower-fatalitiesAnd watch this video:https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/cell-tower-deaths/----------------------------Quote from: BrianHG on November 11, 2018, 03:42:05 amThey have to make it so that the work people have the time to use safety equipment. They can't push people so hard they can't use it.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2018, 03:25:17 pm
content: Quote from: cdev on November 11, 2018, 03:01:21 pmHere is a world wide high quality 720p version of that docu:

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2018, 06:08:44 pm
content: How does OSHA not crack down on this? They inspect my friend's machine shop regularly, there has never been an injury there in more than 20 years they've been operating but that doesn't stop them. They're anal retentive about all the machines having proper guards and functioning door interlocks and such, it's to a point of excess. I'd have thought that the first tower death would have resulted in sweeping changes.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2018, 06:26:40 pm
content: Quote from: JackJones on November 07, 2018, 04:55:38 amHow in the hell do they manage to build/erect this thing?I mean, just getting all that mass of metal, tubing, wiring and piping all they way up there?

author: drussell
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2018, 06:38:29 pm
content: Quote from: BrianHG on November 11, 2018, 06:26:40 pmBasically, they push up a hoisting tower module thingy above current the top level of the tower, bolt that into place to the side and hoist up the next section of actual tower, then push the hoisting section up another distance, repeat, repeat, until entire tower is constructed, then lower the hoisting section to the ground.

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2018, 10:23:38 pm
content: The major cellphone companies usesubcontractorsto do the dangerous jobs, and by doing that they avoid accountability. But they create economic conditions that drive the subcontractors to push climbers harder and harder - to not use safety equipment, because it makes them work slower.It's a race to the bottom on safety.Quote from: james_s on November 11, 2018, 06:08:44 pm

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2018, 10:37:30 pm
content: cellphone companies in America are a joke. The engineering salary I was offered was a joke, I could stock boxes in the liquor store for more money and less travel. They also charge like 5 times more then European companies for the same amounts of data etc. Also the coverage is still somehow horrid. If you want good coverage then you need to pay like 10 times more then europe for verison.They also feel entitled and important with their payment structures and stuff. Pompous assholes. Also run by people that don't know how to speak English. It's not just their call centers rofl. During a negotiation I kept getting some guy trying to get some company car thrust into my asshole and pretend its worth something. Yea like I am gonna learn a buncha arcane communications engineering shit for that kind of salary. SO useful for anyone but them. And all your knowledge probably goes outdated every time they up the G protocol. Maybe it would be worth it if I sold some ice cream and delivered some pizza on the side with their company car.I wonder where their money is going. They charge absolutely ludicrous rates and pay next to nothing. Clearly its not going for infrastructure maintenance or employee safety.