The reason I called you all here

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I don't think you an SOB... I have read a lot of your technical response on my threads as well as others... you come off as a straight shooter, no BS, that always works for me... You have an opinion just like the rest of us and if people have a problem with it, guess what it's thier problem....end of story..

I would have never got pointed in the right direction without your advice or opinion...on my distributor problem...

Pete
 
The aftermath. Now that I'm old and tired, I recently got on Google Maps to see what I could see of "my old work." Pretty sad. That very same radio site that I showed in the beginning of this thread was a low power, abandoned transmitter when we installed that gear. Now it has again been abandoned, and several houses have been built on that hill. that paved road was a dirt trail when I did this work, and there were no houses anywhere around. The odd thing is, the building and tower looks nearly the same as the first time I saw it......abandoned. I'm sure the new neighbors will "encourage" the county or whoever owns it to tear it down, and it may be gone by now
 

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we know you have helped us all with auto electronic stuff and a big thanks.

heights make me dizzy and always have!!!!! I have NO indian blood I guess!???

working outside in the heat, cold, rain, snow, wind???? only thing worse would have to work in a friggin office ( full of le
ts just say, overbearing females!???)..!???????

why don't we have to struggle with old age when we are young and have the strength to fight it and too ignorant to know we can't whup it !!?????
 
we know you have helped us all with auto electronic stuff and a big thanks.

heights make me dizzy and always have!!!!! I have NO indian blood I guess!???

working outside in the heat, cold, rain, snow, wind???? only thing worse would have to work in a friggin office ( full of le
ts just say, overbearing females!???)..!???????

why don't we have to struggle with old age when we are young and have the strength to fight it and too ignorant to know we can't whup it !!?????

you got bigguns ! I would cover the ground w/ @#$%^ before ever getting that high. great elec. skills too, but you ain`t been hot , until you have done a repipe, a house in Tulsa in the summertime when it was a 156 measured degrees up there. could actually see the insulation dust running down our arms in the sweat. next hottest stacking hay in the loft in a tin barn in the summer . " young mans work ! :coffee2:
 
I don't have a problem with you. I think we got testy with each other a long time ago, but no biggie. I respect your knowledge and appreciate how helpful you are to members here.
 
I've learned a lot from your posts, super helpful, thanks. I climb too, know how much fun it is HA! I was up on Stampede Pass on a 120 foot self support last week, TONS of yellow jackets swarming us, primary job got done, will drop the ham antenna in the fall : ) Here's a pic of some tower rescue training, we do a cut rescue...fun!!!
 

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Tower training...........About 94? I guess, went through the Comtrain course. Bear in mind that when I first climbed a tower, I was a kid with NO training, and all we had then were belts and NO safety locks on the lanyard hooks. (No secondary latch) In those days you climbed "unhooked."

Here's a friend and me going up the K6NCG Treasure Island tower in '68 or 69

Tower_001.jpg


Hams_018.jpg


Anyhow, "the world" came to an end that day. I can still remember the instructor holding an old used D ring and the other style hook up above his head, gave them a twist, and the hook came right out!! of the D ring!!
 
you got bigger balls than I do. ive done a little partyin in my days, but theres no way in hell I would ever get that high LOL
 
Tower training...........About 94? I guess, went through the Comtrain course. Bear in mind that when I first climbed a tower, I was a kid with NO training, and all we had then were belts and NO safety locks on the lanyard hooks. (No secondary latch) In those days you climbed "unhooked."

Here's a friend and me going up the K6NCG Treasure Island tower in '68 or 69

Tower_001.jpg


Hams_018.jpg


Anyhow, "the world" came to an end that day. I can still remember the instructor holding an old used D ring and the other style hook up above his head, gave them a twist, and the hook came right out!! of the D ring!!

Yes the equipment has got better, sounds like you climbed in the "cowboy" days! I got into some trouble on a monopole with a cheap cable grab, it came disconnected when I tried to push it down with ONE hand. The pegs were super far apart, my arms were out of gas from dropping several antennas, it wasn't pretty. The company I'm with now lets us get what we need so that's a good thing.
 

It's pretty neat to see the "gear" inside the little huts. I work for a local water utility, so a lot of this equipment is hung on our water towers or on their own towers on our property. I used to cross paths with the guys from the telecom companies when they would climb them, but now that I'm at a desk I don't get to watch very many climbs.
 
It's pretty neat to see the "gear" inside the little huts. I work for a local water utility, so a lot of this equipment is hung on our water towers or on their own towers on our property. I used to cross paths with the guys from the telecom companies when they would climb them, but now that I'm at a desk I don't get to watch very many climbs.

Yup. "I been" on, in, under, a few water facilities. Someplace, got a few piccures.

An interestin' story of just how bad interference between two radio systems can be

In Pullman, WA there's a city water tank on I think it's called "Skyline." It's a small tower with only a couple -three radios. We added one to make the third or so radio. For those of you who understand a bit about "external mixing" that is similar to a crystal radio, where interference can "mix" in a diode detector and create spurious / harmonic, harmful interferance.

IT was something like the third harmonic of one radio was mixing with the fundamental tx frequency of the second radio, and the two were mixing in the PA of the third radio, creating a spurious interference that was DEAD ON FREQ of the third radio.

So in simple terms, a simple radio site with only 3 radios, and you ALREADY had an interference problem between them!!!

Below is a Google Maps shot. Looks like they've added a few more since I was there in the mid 90's
 

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Yes the equipment has got better, sounds like you climbed in the "cowboy" days! I got into some trouble on a monopole with a cheap cable grab, it came disconnected when I tried to push it down with ONE hand. The pegs were super far apart, my arms were out of gas from dropping several antennas, it wasn't pretty. The company I'm with now lets us get what we need so that's a good thing.

I've never had to climb monopoles, they were just "getting underway" in my days. I hated the looks of them. Whoever designs the climbing system on those should be hung by the ba-hauls

The thing that bothers me about cable systems and yo-yo's is that when I was "there" there wasn't a lot of standardization. There needs to be one or two standards for those

In addition, THINK about the attachment hardware for the TOP of that cable. You can't see it from the bottom, and it might be damaged from a lightning strike, from improper hardware from some dufus installer, or even loose or missing hardware.

Something which bothers me to this day is the accident I detailed earlier in this thread about the death of a climber from a broken Rohn climbing peg. That probably would NEVER have happened if better ladders were installed on that tower.........and they are an option.

One in question:

http://wirelessestimator.com/articl...seriously-injures-tower-tech-in-50-foot-fall/
 
i useto be a mechanic for a large ski resort, our towers were no where near.that high but i sure loved being at the top.

I can remember a few close calls. one morning the rime ice was so thick the gorilla would not go around anything so in my youthfull exuberance i just climed to the top took out my hammer and gave a.good wack, ALL the ice shed at once with me not hooked in, now the tower is swinging side to side and all there is to do os hang on.. Most folks dont realise just how much those towers move..

And then there was osha... those guys have no idea what safe is..
I remember when "double hooking" was introduced. This osha guys is telling us we have to double hook up the ladder.. Im all for double hooking at the top but going up... NO!. After hes done we suit him up in a harnes , double hooks and a 30lb tool bad and ask him to show us the correct way to climb a tower. He made it 20-30ft before he was so tired and gripped out he came down and said "ok do it your way"....

or the guy who said we need to be clipped in to the top of the D9 when using it as.scaffold, The guy did not realise the 9 is only 8-9feet off the ground and our screamers at full extention are 15 feet. so youd fall off the roof hit the track, screamer extends and u hit the ground. Un hooked u can jist jump clear.. whats safer? humm.....
 
Lucky me! I've worked at 6 radio stations and one TV station and never had to climb a tower! Been ice bombed from a few though!
 
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