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Video: climbing a broadcast transmission tower

Joe Frickin' Friday

By Joe Frickin' Friday
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Joe Frickin' Friday

Joe Frickin' Friday

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A most excellent video: hard-hat-cam video of a maintenance worker climbing a 1700-foot-tall broadcast transmission tower, complete with narration. If you're prone to vertigo or motion sickness, take your Dramamine now and come back in a half-hour.

 

Then click this link.

 

:eek:

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yabadabapal

yabadabapal

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never never never, not for all the money in the world would i do that and I use to be a pole climber/gaffer as a kid. I hope he is well paid. Incredible!

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Selden

Selden

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Above a certain height, you're bug splat anyway in a fall, so why not be relaxed? I liked the understated way the narrator said, "This is the tricky part." I was glad he acknowledged the storm clouds, which were really freaking me out.

 

Somehow, I can't imagine Mike Rowe doing this for an episode of Dirty Jobs. Somebody has to do this work, and these guys probably enjoy it, but I'll pass.

 

I was somewhat acrophobic as a kid, but I credit motorcycles with helping get over it. Think about what's going on when you're heeled over in a turn with no visible means of support -- yet you don't fall down (well, not usually anyway).

 

 

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Joe Frickin' Friday

Joe Frickin' Friday

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Somehow, the helmets seem a tad superfluous.

 

Useful if your buddy's toolbag bonks you in the noggin, but that's about it. :grin:

 

He checks on lightning conditions, because "if there's a storm brewing, there's no quick way down."

 

I don't think that's true. :grin:

 

Moreover, it seems to me the time to check for lightning conditions is before beginning the ascent, not after you reach the absolute top. :dopeslap:

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ghaverkamp

ghaverkamp

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That's just nuts. I immediately imagined a helicopter having to come up and get me.

 

Yeah.

 

The getting up would be a lot of work and looking up, so while not something I would do or could do, what bothered me was thinking about the trip down off the antenna. It seemed crazy enough grabbing for holds going up. Kicking around for places for my booted feet... eek.

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Perlova

Perlova

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Somehow, the helmets seem a tad superfluous.

 

Actually the helmet is a necessity. If you smack your head on a rung or strut, it could knock you out and cause you to lose your grip. I was an electrician in a steel mill for quite a few years and had to climb up onto a lot of overhead cranes in high bay buildings. My helmet, even though was hot and heavy, saved my noggin quite a few times from beams and overhead wires.

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Perlova

Perlova

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You know what I don't get. Why not just put the antenna at the top of the "1600ft elevator ride portion"

 

What kind of sick twisted mind would construct a 1700 foot tower and stop the elevator at the 1600 foot mark?

 

I'll bet the engineer who designed that deathtrap would never go up there. (I know this because I'm an engineer)

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Knifemaker

Knifemaker

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Funny thing...I don't recall them mentioning anything about WIND conditions in the video. I wonder how much sway back and forth there is on the trip up?

 

OSHA allows for free climbing...Guess the inspectors allow for that because...How many of them (inspectors) would have the kahoonies to be checking the climbers !!!! :eek:

 

I can think of a million reasons NOT to do this job but not one reasonable reason to do it....I need Keith's rubber chicken...it has no backbone and neither do I when it comes to this type of "JOB" :dopeslap:

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Joe Frickin' Friday

Joe Frickin' Friday

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Funny thing...I don't recall them mentioning anything about WIND conditions in the video. I wonder how much sway back and forth there is on the trip up?

 

Despite its impressive height, I'm gonna guess it doesn't sway much. It's a very open structure (no panels), very small projected area, and it's braced in all directions by guy wires.

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Bheckel169

Bheckel169

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Did anybody else have a strange sensation in the leg area? Now I know what they mean when they say my knees buckled. Very weird feeling watching that.

Bruce

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Mike

Mike

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The video has been removed. Here's the message at YouTube:

 

This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by TheOnLineEngineer.org.

 

Here's the explanation why:

 

http://www.theonlineengineer.org/TheOLEBLOG/?p=561

 

It was a nice try, but there are about a jillion copies of it everywhere on line. A good reminder that once something is posted on the web, it may live forever.

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Ken H.

Ken H.

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Would you believe I actually use to do that? It’s true – for one year as a summer college job I climbed broadcast towers and changed light bulbs on them. The weather threat didn’t bother me much but the wind was a bitch at times. Not ISFA tower movement but it trying to push you hands & feet off at each step. Down was always harder than up for me for some reason. I always marveled at the views though.

 

Surprisingly it didn’t really pay worth a damn. But then I was just a starving college kid that they probably saw coming.

 

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Mike

Mike

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Would you believe I actually use to do that?

 

Given your level of persistence, I can very easily believe that. In fact, I'd opine that if you were told you climb a 20,000-foot tower, you'd just attack that sonofagun one step at a time; it might take days, but the light bulb would get changed.

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JohnnyJ

JohnnyJ

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I saw a base-jumper interviewed recently and he said you had to be quick when you climbed the radio transmission towers because the metal in your teeth would start hurting.

 

My only thought was "Man, you're an idiot."

 

 

JohnnyJ

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  • 2 months later...
Silver Surfer/AKAButters

Silver Surfer/AKAButters

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Whoever it was that said, "never, never, never....," I'm with him. I was scared just sitting here. No safety line? Geeez!

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enfoman

enfoman

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When I got out of the Navy, I was a non destructive weld inspector and worked for a company that did many different and varied contracts. One of them was to go to Maine and work at a Paper mill during the July 4th holiday shutdown.

 

The task was inspecting welds inside the paper digester at the plant. About five of us would ride a circular scaffold up to the top of the 400' digester suspended by 4 electric winches on 5/16" cable and inspect the welds down to the bottom. Here is the kicker-- About 25' from the top, there are nozzles around the diameter sticking out about 4 feet. The scaffold had to be tilted to clear those nozzles and continue to the top with us controlling ascent individually with the winches! High heights don't really bother me that much but when we had to kick that scaffold around those nozzles at a 45 degree angle, needless to say I was puckering a bit.

 

On the bottom of the digester--- a mixing blade slightly smaller than the 26 ft diameter of the tank. It looked as big as the top of my finger from the top. Ah to reflect what things we did in our youth!

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