[TowerTalk] Breaking all the tower climbing rules at an

[Jim Thomson]

Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:38:01 +0000
From: Paul_group <paul_group at greenrover.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Breaking all the tower climbing rules at an
amazing height...

On 02/12/2010 13:33, n4zkf wrote:
> Horse Hockey!  "The safer a situation seems to be breeds complacency, that's
> when accidents happen"
> That's the biggest bunch of BS I have heard in years.

Agreed!

>
> Sorry for the soapbox guys but when I hear this stuff my blood boils. 100%
> tie off at all times! Period!

Someone earlier asked how much people got paid for working like this, 
let me answer that simply:

If an employee or contractor of mine worked like that, he would not get 
paid.. and would never work for us again.

73 de Paul GW8IZR IO73TI
http://www.gw8izr.com

##  at the telco I worked at for 34 yrs,  anytime anybody is working >85'... you
are paid  double time. These days, that amounts to aprx $63.50  per hr.
 I started when I was 20 yrs old back in 1976.  The 64 yr old, old geezers' that
were there at the time, had been there since  1932, and no accidents on their watch either.    Zero
accidents in the 34 yrs I was there.  None of the various towers were over 200'.
Average wage for a tower climber in the usa these days is $18.50 per hr.    Remember
that 1 hr TV documentary  a couple of yrs back on NBC, depicting us contractor's  working on
various cell tower's ?  They had deaths left, right, and center. Some of the tower climber's
depicted in the documentary were later killed, and the funeral was also part of the same documentary. 
Then the owner of the tower climbing business is pissed off, since he had to shell out Just over $1000.00  
for  bit's and pieces of new safety gear, after inspecting everyone's  climbing gear!   This is your typ non union
jerk run organization, low wages, safety last, climb or get fired. Where I worked, the employee's had the  final say
in whether a structure was safe to climb, not the boss.  Do these idiot's even have a health and safety committee? 

##  I wouldn't trust those step pegs  farther than I could throw em.  Esp the super long ones, that only stick
out on one side of the mast, as depicted in that video.  IE: you have both feet and hands on the same super long
pegs.  If you read through all the various  industry- tower safety related items, several showed sheared off step pegs. 
They are usually just 5/8"  x 10"  long steel bolts, with mushroom end's on em.   That's  fine..as long as you have the
requisite safety cableS  running down the side of the mast/tower....and the climber is clipped onto the safety cable at all
times.  Then if he slips, he's not gonna  fall too far.   If you go through that video a couple of times, you will see instances
of where the climber is only holding on with one hand!   Now that's really asking for trbl.   Now add a little moisture, or a 
sudden rain fall, some wind blowing you or the 30 lb tool bag swaying in the breeze, or the fact the temp drops 3 deg's F
for every 1000'  you climb up, and now you are really inviting trbl. 

##  what happens when the  climber's hands go numb, or he has an accident, and smacks his hand/arm/elbow into some 
steel, and now has extreme difficulty climbing down?     There appeared to be rust in several places  during the climb in that
video.  I'd like to seem them do a guy wire change out. 

later.... Jim   VE7RF