[TowerTalk] tower fatality

[Dick Green WC1M]

I don't like to speculate, but it looks more like Rohn 45 or 55 on a pier-pin base. You can see the pier pin hole in the first shots of people gathered around the base. It also looks like there's only a single 10-foot section. If that's correct, it may be that the person was trying to put temporary guys on the base section, and when it fell over he hit the stone wall. Or perhaps just the 10-foot fall was enough. It doesn't take much if you land  the wrong way. 

Again, it's speculation on my part, but if he climbed the base section to attach the temporary guys that wasn't the correct way to do it. You put the temporary guys on with the base section on the ground, then with at least one helper you lift the base section onto the pier pin. Then, with at least one person holding the base section in place, you tighten the temporary guys. I guess it's possible that he did it the right way, but the section fell over on him while he was holding it and someone else was tightening (over-tightening?) the guy that ran behind him. Rohn 45 and 55 weigh about 100 lbs per section, so you wouldn't want one to fall on you. But I think it's more likely he was at the top of the section trying to attach temporary guys. If no one was holding the section, or if only one person was, it could easily fall over.

It's been almost 18 years since I put up my Rohn 55 pier-pin base, so my recollection is a little hazy, but I do have some photos that show how I did it. Parts of that project were downright scary. Rather than guy the base section with rope, I used pre-made guy cables from one of my AB-577 towers. The "snubbers" on the guy assemblies allowed me to tension the guys properly without having to manually tension them and use cable clips. I was somewhat concerned about using 1/8" stainless steel cable for a "man load", but the breaking-strength ratings appeared to make it safe enough for temporary guys. To make sure, I used two sets. First set was attached to the base section, then a friend and I hoisted it into place and tensioned the guys. We then attached a second set of 1/8" guys to another section, I climbed the base section, attached the gin pole, and my friend hoisted the next section to me. I fixed that section in place, then we tightened the second set of temporary guys. So I had two sections up, each with its own set of temporary guys. Then I climbed to the top of the second section, and we lifted two more sections, one at a time (the guy on my tower are at 34'/64'/95', which means the brackets are attached at the bottom of every fourth section.) The single section above the two temporary guy sets didn't sway much, so it wasn't all that scary when attaching the first set of permanent guys to the bottom of the fourth section. Then I climbed down and tensioned the  guys. I could have stayed on the tower while my friend did that, but I wanted to do it myself -- after all it was my life at stake. After that, the first four sections were solidly guyed with 5/16" Phyllistran and steel cables. But I left the temporary guys in place as there was no reason to remove them at that point. Then I climbed and placed three more sections, attached permanent guys to the bottom of the fourth, climbed down and tensioned the middle guys. Then I repeated with three more sections and attached/tensioned the top guys. After that, the tower was rock solid. 

Climbing the unguyed sections was scary because there was some sway (and knowledge that the sections were unguyed), but Rohn 55 is rugged stuff and I felt that the three unguyed sections were essentially self-supporting and the likelihood of a leg breaking or bending was essentially nil. I'm not so sure I would have felt that way about Rohn 25. I was confident enough in the Rohn 55 that I placed one more section above the section with the top guys (which were halfway up that section), so that there's 15 feet of unguyed tower above the top guys. This allowed me to use a short, heavy-walled aluminum mast with my large 40m beam a few inches above the top plate, rather than having to use a 15-20 foot steel mast that I would have to climb to get to the top antenna. I've climbed that unguyed 15 feet many times and it's plenty solid.

Needless to say, I was really glad when the top guy was attached and tensioned. If I'd been able to get a crane to the base I might have gone the pre-assembled route.

73 Dick WC1M

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Lott <lottsphoto at gmail.com> 
Sent: Sunday, June 16, 2019 10:30 AM
To: jz73 at verizon.net
Cc: TowerTalk <towertalk at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] tower fatality

Saw this yesterday

But zero details
would love to learn exactly what happen and more importantly the why learning the cause of accidents helps those of us still around from committing the same mistake

Immediate questions like was there other guy wires already attached or did the climber pull the tower over attaching the first guy wire etc etc

it appears it have been rohn 25g
was it 25g ?
what was the height ?
was this the first set of guys being installed or ?
was there a ground observer/helper ?

Steve
*KG5VK*
Tele 318-470-9806
2019 ARRL NTX Section Manager
*Please note: My Out Going Email address is LottsPhoto at Gmail.com* *KG5VK at ARRL.ORG <KG5VK at ARRL.ORG> is forwarded to my Gmail address*



On Sun, Jun 16, 2019 at 9:24 AM Jon Zaimes via TowerTalk < towertalk at contesting.com> wrote:

> Sad news:
>
> https://wnep.com/2019/06/14/one-dead-after-tower-collapse-in-susquehan
> na-cou
> nty/
> <https://wnep.com/2019/06/14/one-dead-after-tower-collapse-in-susqueha
> nna-county/>
>
>
>
> 73/Jon
>
>
>
> Jon P. Zaimes, AA1K
>
> Tower climber for hire
>
> http://www.aa1k.us/
>
>
>
> Reviews of AA1K tower work on eham website:
> http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/12922
>
>
>
> Hug your favorite tower every day, and always stay connected to it.
>
>
>
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