[TowerTalk] 80' oak and socket hazards

[Carl Smidt]

Does anyone remember the hilarious story published on this reflector a few
years ago about the poor, hapless, guy working on his tower and forgetting
about leverage and weight, etc., who proceeded, much against his will, while
hoisting a bucket of parts up the tower, to ascend and descend up and down
the tower while hanging on to the rope and finally while laying on his back
on the ground, all beaten up, seeing the bucket hurtling down towards him.
If anyone remembers and can e-mail it to me or put it on the reflector,
please do. Thanks.

73,   Carl   VE9OV
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "RICHARD BOYD" <ke3q at msn.com>
To: "towertalk reflector" <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 4:39 PM
Subject: [TowerTalk] 80' oak and socket hazards


The story of the 80' oak and 19MM socket injury reminds me of a Field Day
injury we had some years back (names and callsigns intentionally eliminated.
They know who they are and don't want to hear or think about this again!)

Though we only needed to throw a rope over a 40' tree, "we" had a crossbow
with lugnut taped to the end -- the "arrow" (or "bolt") attached to a
fishing line.  Somehow the line hung up somewhere, the arrow reached the end
of the line, stretched the line, and began its return trip to earth, hitting
one of our people who was just spectating from nearby, not the "archer,"
just above the eye.  It bled profusely but a Band-Aid closed it back up, no
stitches were required.  Very fortunate indeed that the eye was not lost.

Lessons learned:

  1.. Be very, very careful, more careful than we were.  Everyone other than
the shooter should stand way, way, back.  Even then, you might want to stand
behind something and, like (not) looking at the sun, avoid watching the
operation, because if they see it your eyes have become targets.
  2.. Don't use overkill -- that is, don't use a higher velocity object
thrower if something lower velocity will do.
  3.. Wear protective eyeglasses, hardhat, etc. if for some reason you have
to be near such an operation.  We do, at least to some extent, give
consideration to eye protection and head protection and steel-toe boots too,
but I've often contemplated the injury done if a wrench or nut or bolt falls
on the point on top of your shoulder -- I wonder if anyone in the "drop
zone" should have something like football shoulder pads, in addition to the
protections we already consider standard.  It seems like the shoulders are
the main "horizontal surfaces" we've left unprotected.  I doubt that
shoulders get hit very often but when they do, ouch!
73 - Rich, KE3Q
_______________________________________________

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