77 and going on 78 in June. Two years ago climbed up and replaced the 120' set of guy wires on the tower. Last fall, replaced the 90' ones. Right now assembling the 60' replacements to be installed as wx permits. Guyed Rohn 25G 127' tall. 30' guys look OK, so will leave those be for now. The secret is staying active, monitoring health and 100% tie-off with appropriate safety equipment whilst on the tower. That includes proper boots! Without appropriate footwear, tower rungs can become intolerable to stand on in a matter of minutes. Tilt-over and crank-up towers are death traps waiting to happen.
There was a request yesterday for help, involving climbing a crank-up tower. I notice nobody has responded.
As someone who never had a tower but thought these would be easier to maintain....why are these so dangerous?
I have a crank up tower that tilts over. I wouldn’t have it any other way! If my tower was stuck in the up position for some reason then I would use a high reach to fix the problem. Climbing a tower isn’t my bag of tee... Frank
It still doesn't deal with the issue of how you service crank-ups safely... Settling is the big issue with crank ups. If someone has better advice than using crowbars across the frame, and shaking the tower to force settling, we would all benefit from that knowledge. Getting a cherry picker in, for example, is often not practical.
Planning is a major component to any construction and installing a tower is a critical undertaking. Safety is a huge consideration. Sticking a tower in your back yard is not always a viable option! I have family (including my fur babies) that count on me so putting my life at risk for a hobby is not an option. If I couldn’t install a tower with safety in mind then I wouldn’t do it...... Frank
Frank, Not everyone is as perceptive, and pull backs from neighbor yards often dictate placing the tower close to the house. So we still have the question to answer: how to stabilize a crank -up best, for antenna servicing? Any takers? 73 Chip W1YW
If one of the raising cables fails or hangs up when the tower is not fully retracted it can come down like a guillotine severing anything protruding inside the tower--like hands, arms, feet. Very dangerous. Each section needs to be fully blocked with steel bars before climbing to insure that if something fails no injury will result. I had a crankup with a large tribander and 2 element 40 yagi that I was cranking down. Unknown to me a cable hung up developing a huge loop. When it broke free the tower sections rapidly telescoped down about 10 feet (each section). Fortunately I did not have a hand inside the tower at the time. I was not hurt but both yagis were heavily damaged
...good idea to point out the RIGHT WAY to prep a crank up for maintenance. SO far crowbars and tower shaking (for settling) seem the consensus. Got better? Please!
Towers of any kind are a hazard. Even experienced and professional tower maintenance folk get injured or killed every year on towers. Not too long ago a very experienced tower guy was killed in an accident involving an unsafe carabiner or other climbing hardware. There are so many "look alike" fake climbing gear that I think it presents a real hazard. I also think lots of amateur radio folk underestimate the amount of maintenance tower mounted antennas can present during their lifetime. They might have been able to conduct such maintenance while younger but it gets more difficult as one ages. Some may pound their chest and claim to be just as fit as 10 or 20 years ago. They haven't met their defining moment of aging as yet. When they do they will understand....if they survive the realization. If an amateur radio operator feels a tower is necessary to the enjoyment of the hobby it's fine. But like anything else such an investment has its liabilities. I myself have climbed meteorologic towers during my career as an engineer. I was always with a well trained and well equipped group but can't actually say I enjoyed the experience. Being hoisted up in a crane "skip box" wasn't as much fun as it looked either! And with regards to the individual injured in the OP news story, I hope he was not injured too badly and is recovering. He certainly does not deserve the slings and arrows of criticism at this point. Lots of things can happen during any work on a tower which lead to some poor judgment calls. It happens. Learn from it and beware. Be careful out there!
I agree: he made a mistake that any of us could have done too--hope for his speedy recovery! That's why I was trying to get us to concentrate on how to prevent future accidents with crank-ups. 73 Chip W1YW
Certainly in the modern era there are oodles of cautions and warnings and procedure that the tower manu's provide--but many of these crank-ups are 30, even 50 years old: galvanized steel sticks around. If you replace the cables you are good to go. I checked an old Tri-Ex manual and found nothing about slotting the tower sections with steel (crow bars). SO not a lotta guidance out there--formally or in practice beyond what we discussed here. 73 Chip W1YW
