Okay.....how many of you guys (and gals) climb?

Equinox · Post by **Equinox** » Tue Apr 01, 2003 4:38 pm

I used to. In my first life as a two way tech, I climbed often, up to 1,000 feet. Now, I'll go 30-40 feet, that's it. Too fat.

The Pager Geek · Post by **The Pager Geek** » Tue Apr 01, 2003 5:13 pm

Love to. Up to 500 feet. (The tallest tower around here is 600' THAT IT!!!! Our area has small erections...

)

Size matters....

tpg

Post by **wavetar** » Tue Apr 01, 2003 5:36 pm

Ugh...climbing. Don't really like it. Don't really have a fear of heights, just a very healthy respect for them! Once I'm where I need to be & strapped in, no problem, I could hang around all day. It's just the trip up (and down) that bothers me. I'll climb Joe Contractor's standard 65-ft tower, that's about it for me.

Todd

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Tue Apr 01, 2003 6:07 pm

It's not the fall that bothers me. It's the sudden stop at the end. I used to climb... until my MT1000 dropped about 80 feet off the 105 foot stick. One of the guys on the ground picked it up, put a new battery on it (it had an aftermarket battery at the time that shattered upon rapid deceleration) and got a radio check from the fire dispatcher. At that point, I determined that I wasn't built like a Motorola and stuck with the ground work. Haven't been up on a tower or roof since.

jbxx · Post by **jbxx** » Tue Apr 01, 2003 7:01 pm

I'll climb anything, anywhere, but not anytime.
Won't be able to do it much longer.
(but you have to pay me a lot)
Been climbing towers for 30 Years.
J.B. AD6WX

n8uhn · Post by **n8uhn** » Tue Apr 01, 2003 9:39 pm

At 31, 5'9" and 115 lbs, I still climb!

had a 300 ft climb last summer.

the tallest near by tower is two counties away, wcml tv ch6 (pbs) it's over 1000 ft high.

man i would love to see the view and snap a few digi pic's from the top of that stick!

perhaps - i'll relamp the thing for a very low price someday just to say i did

anyhoo N.E MI does have the length and the size - lol

Bill

motorolamonster911 · Post by **motorolamonster911** » Tue Apr 01, 2003 9:48 pm

I'm 15 and only climbed 2 30' ft. towers to put up TV Antennas. I also climbed on the roof of our dispatch center, then got on another ladder and got on the Microwave Ant. Mast (about 35' ft.) and put a antenna up, does that count?

. Mom bought had a heart attack when she heard what I did.

apco25 · Post by **apco25** » Wed Apr 02, 2003 8:08 am

I hope you were wearing the appropriate safety belts and observed RF expose with the microwave antenna.

I've climbed several small free standing 100ft towers and a couple bell shape water towers. Now those (water tanks) were neat!

The most tower fun I had was using a bucket lift crane to drop and entire mast assembly, with antennas, hard line and other hardware right on the tower where it belong - about a thousand pounds of antenna - sure beat hauling it up there by muscle power.

KitN1MCC · Post by **KitN1MCC** » Wed Apr 02, 2003 5:07 pm

i have not climbmed up above about 50feet on this olf fire tower. to hang antennas at field day. but i have no problems doing it,
also i perfer the Bucket truck route

fire-medic8104 · Post by **fire-medic8104** » Wed Apr 02, 2003 8:37 pm

Highest I've been is 980'. I loved it. Took a picture, but had a small hole in my climb bag and it dropped. Still haven't found the camera. I routinely climb 250 to 400'. I normally work in installs but as a grunt (bottom of the barrel) I also have the duties of tower man.

I went that high just to change a connector. The tower actually had an elevator but after I heard the horror stories on those things I never ride them.

Took 3 1/2 hrs. to climb 10 mins. to change connector and 3 hrs. to climb down (with plenty of breaks).

Equinox · Post by **Equinox** » Wed Apr 02, 2003 9:52 pm

And the time just flew by didn't it?

Worst horror story I have- I was hanging a new run of 7/8 Heliax on a 440' tower one time. The guy on the ground needed to leave as soon as possible, the plan was when I got the coax secured at the top he would put the connector on at the bottom then leave as I climbed down and clamped the line. So, I got the coax secured at the top, he went ahead and ran the coax into the shack and put the connector on at the bottom. Well, as I go to connect the line to the antenna I decided I had a little too much coax and told him so but he decided it was too late to do anything about it other than have me attempt to "snake" the coax around to take up the slack (and he was the boss on this job). You guessed it- I wound up kinking the coax. Of course, like a couple of idiots we had already dropped the rope, so he couldn't send up a hacksaw etc. to cut the bad part out and reinstall the connector. After spending quite a bit of time trying to do what I could with what I had with me, I had to give up and go ahead and climb down, with the plan to return the next day to climb again with a hacksaw etc. to fix the coax. To make a short story long, by the time I got down I had been on this tower 9-1/2 hours, with my little canteen long since emptied. I'm not kidding, the last 100 feet or so my arms were trying to lock in the halfway extended position as I was climbing down. Definitely NOT the way to go about doing a tower job.

Glen W Christen · Post by **Glen W Christen** » Thu Apr 03, 2003 1:10 pm

We call for the tower crew in almost all instances. The scariest story that I ever heard was when I first started, and it was second hand. A tower man was building tower and was at 450 feet when they dropped a section which sheared the guy wire. The tower buckled, and with no other chance, he held on. The tower swung past center, returned, and he stepped off on the ground. If this really happened, he probably had to clean out his pants.

evanh · Post by **evanh** » Thu Apr 03, 2003 5:06 pm

The tower swung past center, returned, and he stepped off on the ground. If this really happened, he probably had to clean out his pants.

If there were ever a time to consider a career change, for me it would have been that day.

I climb wooden utility poles on a daily basis, but have never been over 40 feet.

Built a tower several years ago up to 78 ft.

I would agree that the climb itself is not much fun, but once you get to the top, the view is great.

After climbing up and down several times during construction of my tower, I noticed my legs were beginning to get a little rubbery.

I don't think that a trip to 1000' was meant for anyone that only climbs occasionally. For me, I'd have to get in shape....probably by climbing the stairs of some high-rise building for a period of time, until that weak feeling wore off.

EH

KitN1MCC · Post by **KitN1MCC** » Thu Apr 03, 2003 5:20 pm

evanh wrote:
The tower swung past center, returned, and he stepped off on the ground. If this really happened, he probably had to clean out his pants.
If there were ever a time to consider a career change, for me it would have been that day.

I climb wooden utility poles on a daily basis, but have never been over 40 feet.

Built a tower several years ago up to 78 ft.

I would agree that the climb itself is not much fun, but once you get to the top, the view is great.

After climbing up and down several times during construction of my tower, I noticed my legs were beginning to get a little rubbery.

I don't think that a trip to 1000' was meant for anyone that only climbs occasionally. For me, I'd have to get in shape....probably by climbing the stairs of some high-rise building for a period of time, until that weak feeling wore off.

EH

I am on poles here in CT once a month and no one around here spikes poles that often. due to the fact ruins the poles and makes them nasty

KitN1MCC · Post by **KitN1MCC** » Thu Apr 03, 2003 5:23 pm

Well just from my experience workign out side and stuff. 3 good things are good when you go up a Tower.

1-Water
2-Banna
3-BBJ sandwitch

water cause it is water and Banna to help when you fingers and arms lock up with sugar and vitamin boost

bbj cause it is good

fire-medic8104 · Post by **fire-medic8104** » Thu Apr 03, 2003 6:55 pm

Yeah, definitely water and some form of food is good. I take vitamins everyday and workout 3-4 times a week, so it helps with getting up and down. Frequent breaks are a must or you will cramp up.

Flametamer · Post by **Flametamer** » Fri Apr 04, 2003 6:01 am

A tech I used to work with said he watched a tornado go by when he was at about 1500ft. on a TV tower. Fortunatly, it didn't come toward him. He said he would have never made it down in time if it had. Oh, and the tower fell back in 98. The tower company was replaceing diagonal braces and weren't putting temporary braces in. The 3 guys were at about 1700 feet when it fell.

nmfire10 · Post by **nmfire10** » Fri Apr 04, 2003 7:20 am

You know, I've never been any higher than a 13th floor helipad or a 100ft Laddar truck. I Still can't even begin to fathom these guys working on towers that are 1,500+ feet up. That is completely insane. It must take half the just to get up an down the thingm not mention all the stuff you have to lug up and down with you. I would imagine the top of a 1500ft tower is not equiped with facilities.

fire-medic8104 · Post by **fire-medic8104** » Fri Apr 04, 2003 7:28 pm

Negative, there's not. You just do what you gotta do!

apco25 · Post by **apco25** » Fri Apr 04, 2003 8:50 pm

That's REALLY pissin in the wind!

KH · Post by KH » Sat Apr 05, 2003 8:51 am

I used to climb(and paint!) all up and down the west coast of FL for Goff communications. Climbing was cool, and kept me in shape. One time I had a green ground man, and let the rope slide thru his hands as I was replacing a DB420. Well it burned his hands and he let go---I caught the antenna with my middle finger, 14 stitches...this was at 220 ft.

Painting SUCKED.

Okay.....how many of you guys (and gals) climb?

Okay.....how many of you guys (and gals) climb?

Tower work.