In a message dated 99-08-16 16:49:07 EDT, DAVED@ctilidar.com writes:
> O.K. Steve, so now I'm 70 feet or so off the deck. I'm standing on a
> piece of angle iron thats U-bolted to the mast. I'm praying that my mast
> is still nice and strong. I tell myself that this is kind of crazy but
> as a friend of mine once told me "In times like this, Amateur Radio must
> go on". So I stay with it. How is my climbing lanyard attached so that
> it keeps me nice and close in to the mast? This is definitely time for 2
> lanyards right?
Excellent question.
Yes - this is the penultimate ham radio tower move and will actually
only be done by few hams. The thread a couple of months ago was on the 'nads
requried.
And yes again - 2 lanyards are handy. Your fall arrest lanyard, which
is normally attached above you, is only a little useful since there's no
place 'above' you to attach it. You can imagine the problem and exposure when
you try to wrap your normal 3-foot or so positioning lanyard around the mast
several times with one hand to get you close enough to the tower to do some
work. What I do is to loop my normal tower positioning lanyard once around
the mast as a backup lanyard while using my "Rattmann lanyard" as the primary
positioning lanyard. The Rattmann lanyard is a web lanyard that is one-foot
long between the snaphooks. It's named for Glenn Rattmann, K6NA, who gave me
the idea. It's just long enough to go between your belt waist D-rings and
around the mast. It's not wrapped around, just passed around the mast. Now
you've got a lanyard that'll hold you cozy to the mast and you've got a
backup that mostly stays out of the way while you're working. When I first
started using the Rattmann lanyard, I only took it when I knew I was going to
be working on a mast. Well, I found that it comes in handy in many situations
where you might not want to take the time to put a lanyard around the tower
(i.e. a crank-up, quick attachment, etc.) so it's hooked to my safety belt
100% of the time.
If you really need this very specialized device, they're available from
Champion Radio Products for $50.00.
Cheers, Steve K7LXC
http://www.championradio.com
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-towertalk@contesting.com
Search: http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search.htm
|