[CQ-Contest] Tower safety

Fri Nov 15 17:44:21 EST 2019

I have not heard the exact circumstances of W0AIH’s accident.  What was quickly published was his fall arrest system failed.  He was clearly using a harness.  If some has the details, I think we would all benefit from learning.

Even with proper temporary guying, I would not climb a tower to take it down that had the base legs rusted through at the concrete point.

We would really benefit from the equivalent of NASA’s pilot reporting system where the details of events and “near events” are publicized for us all to learn.

I for one, like many tower climbers that I have observed, do a hybrid of free climb and clipped in.  Free climb to the first set of guys is pretty common for many of us.  Clipping in as we gain height.  90% of the time clipped in while climbing.  100% doing work.  Full body harness?  Not really.  But haven’t used a lineman’s belt since being a teenager.

Is it perfect?  No. But if I am tired. I don’t climb.  And the above is pretty darned safe when done with good judgment.  A full body harness and carelessness, or understanding of physical strength, is not “safe” just because.

Ed  N1UR

From: Gerry Hull [mailto:gerry at yccc.org]
Sent: Friday, November 15, 2019 4:14 PM
To: Edward Sawyer
Cc: rjairam at gmail.com; James Cain; CQ-Contest Reflector
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Tower safety

Ed,

I think you are applying your analysis from the wrong perspective.

In the W0AIH case, if Paul had been 100% attached to the tower, his winch cable could have failed and he would have survived (this craziest) winching approach.

In our local case, the tower base failure as a root cause is a red herring:  It may have contributed.  However, it was a process error.   No one should consider taking down a tower that was up for ANY length of time without first fully inspecting the tower, the guying system, etc.   Had these unfortunate gentlemen taken any time to survey and understand what they were getting into, I believe this incident may have been avoided.

As K8MR points out, it does not matter how many 1000s of hours of experience you have, or how much of a bodybuilder you are.   All it takes is 1 second of distraction to end your life.

73, Gerry W1VE

On Fri, Nov 15, 2019 at 8:16 AM Edward Sawyer <EdwardS at sbelectronics.com<mailto:EdwardS at sbelectronics.com>> wrote:
I think that issue is that the discussion Jim had did not get to the true root cause analysis in all cases.  HE did speak about temporary guying below the work on  a tower and doing the "off the tower" movement of guys which clearly was a root cause of more than one known tower incident.

I believe that a rusted base at the concrete exit point was a root cause and I am not sure I heard that mentioned.

W0AIH's fatality was in no way due to not using the proper safety harness.  There are pictures of him using one.  I am not sure what failed in his arrest system.  But wearing the wrong harness is not what it was.

To be truthful to the root cause analysis process, of which I do a lot if it at work, is there documented fatalities of wearing the lesser harness than what Jim was showing on the video?  If so, what happened, and how would it be mitigated by that ewquipment?

If we REALLY want to improve safety, we should focus on what's killing people.  Not on what isn't killing people.

Some of that occurred on Jim's talk.  Some of it did not.  And some of it is great advice but may have no direct impact on reducing what's killing people.

Ed  N1UR

-----Original Message-----
From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com<mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com>] On Behalf Of rjairam at gmail.com<mailto:rjairam at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2019 7:19 PM
To: James Cain
Cc: CQ-Contest Reflector
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Tower safety

You got lucky.

I prefer not to rely on luck, and it doesn’t take much time to get properly suited up at all.

As for replacing the climbing apparatus, I wouldn’t trust it if it arrested a serious fall. Stress on that kind of apparatus is cumulative so there may be hidden danger.

This is your life you’re gambling with and by all means I won’t tell you how to live it, but I prefer not to roll the dice.

Ria
N2RJ

On Thu, Nov 14, 2019 at 3:22 PM James Cain <jamesdavidcain at gmail.com<mailto:jamesdavidcain at gmail.com>> wrote:

> I did pretty serious tower work for more than 20 years and quit at age 44.
> By the time I had got suited up in that equipment in the K1IR video it
> would have been too dark to get any work done. And what's this about
> "If you fall, (the manufacturer says) to throw away the climbing apparatus"?
> And what? Buy another climbing apparatus from us?
>
> K1TN
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