I knew a guy who ran an installation crew. When he was in Africa doing a job, Orangutangs would come out of the jungle to see what was going on. Eventually they climbed on the tower and hung out with the crew, just hanging by their arms, swinging and swaying at 1000 feet up. No fear. He said, "I wanted to give them wrenches and get them to work, they were naturals."
These are the unsung Heroes of Broadcasting and ill bet they don,t get the big money the so called stars of radio and television get ,These are the real heroes .
I have nothing but 100% respect for people that perform jobs of this nature. I worked in a chemical plant and have been 200 feet on distillation columns so I have a rough idea of what they do.
I've got the exact pair of blue handled grips in my toolbag , but the highest they have ever been or ever likely to go is 25 feet ,,, I feel proud of myself for just watching the whole video ,,jeez these guys are really something ,,they have my full admiration,,
I used to do this, things are alot easier doing work down from the top of the tower once there's a gin pole involved its a whole lot more work and alot more dangerous mad respect for these guys
Mad respect, i hate to do this kind of metal&metal bolts,heavy weights works on the ground, cant imagine the patience to do it in a way like that above the clouds, no time for a coffee and very limited space to lay of your tools and confined by safetly lines etc. Stay safe and thanks for the work.
I worked in construction for many years. Whenever we saw the "Iron Workers" come onto to the site and do what they do, we were always amazed and in awe of their Fearlessness. These guys are more fearless!
You lose your depth perception at about 100ft. So it is just a bit windier higher up. I have been climbing up to 200m, and it did feel safer than some small towers with fewer security measures.
I helped erect free standing towers back in the 80's for att and we build them in sections on the ground we took 2 cranes and flip them upright then we took the crawler crane then we stacked them one on top the other highest I went was 300 and 5 feet. We had a winch truck and block and tackled the microwave dishes to the tower.
@@skipjack5964 Thanks for input. In Houston, TX many towers are located in one particular area. Many years ago a tower was being erected. A local resident happened to be filming the job. What he captured was a Horrific and Tragic accident. As 1 of the final section was being hoisted up several hundred feet up. A bracket on the cable failed. There workers on the section, sadly they did not survive. I will Always have a deep respect for Tower Workers.
For several years I worked on towers up to 304'. I'm sure climbing this antenna's height could seem scarier, but if there was a vertical velocity mishap, the results would be similar and final. Nice view from near the apex...
Rigging the gin pole always amazed me. Years back we'd ride the tugger basket, it was air operated, had a friction brake the tugger operator controlled so you talked real nice to him unless you had new kid in the basket you wanted to scare the piss out of.
I gotta give huge credit to these guys. I’ll fly open cockpit biplanes and things like that no problem, but this. I don’t think I could do what these guys do.
I know that having the tools tethered would slow things down and be a pain but the possibility of one falling is certainly increased with no tether...dangerous. Gotta hand it to iron workers though, fearless!
That lift must be strong carrying all of the weight of those guys massive balls into the sky. In all seriousness those in this profession are greatly appreciated heroes. Communications is what drives this world.
We do work on LMR sites 300 ft or less and watching these guys use a gin pole at 1000ft is wild to me... Shout out to the guy with no shirt on, no hiding from the sun at 1000ft.
My friend also told me about some instances of what happens if they accidently drop a wrence or a nut or bolt.If dropped, they yell "headache", so that noone under them looks up. He said one guy caught a 9/16 wrench across his face and it opened up real good. Another time, someone dropped a wrench, and it hit someones car parked at the bottom, and went through the engine.
When I and my crew were rigging a weather tower on Vandenberg AFB in the mid-eighties, we had a very young and green junior (his first job out of school) engineer who wouldn't climb and basically tagged along, milling about smartly down on the terra firma. It took about 20 min. to reach the top at 304'. When we got about half way up he would try to take a nap in the Dodge Prospector work vehicle. Nope, about every ten minutes he got a wake up call with a golf ball sized piece of duct seal to the roof of the vehicle. Rang like a bell and so did he. He had a good sense of humor though, so it was all in good fun. And yes it was done safely, the truck and its contents survived.
There is no way it went through the engine. Maybe through the engine bay, but it’s not going to make it through an engine. Terminal velocity is around 130 mph.
The weight of a chrome plated 9/16 open end box wrench must be around a 1/2 pound, now at 130 mph, someone would have to calculate the kinetic energy of such a wrench and then calculate the strength of a cast iron engine block, and of course the engine is only so thick in places..... just relaying what they said, I was not there.@@The_Red_Off_Road
Its definitely not for everyone, that's for sure. I was a rigger for several years, and whats crazy is before that, I had an intense fear of heights. I got over it tho with some "exposure therapy", and I really enjoyed my time working in the sky. Learning how to completely trust your harness, and understanding that its going to do exactly what its supposed to do, and its not going to allow you to fall, was a big part of me being able to calmly and confidently work several hundred feet in the air.
Once you are above 20 feet it does not matter how high you go… a fall is gonna kill you. My grand father and father were both iron workers. My grandfather had incredible balance. Even a 70 he could walk a chain link fence. He worked before OSHA and all the safety regulations. It was each man for himself. There were lots of black stamps in his union book (they signified a payment into a fund to payout to a dead man’s family). They paid with their bodies… both had multiple surgeries to repair their backs and necks by the time they retired. But it was damn good paying work, especially during the depression for my grandfather.
I met up with two crews doing work to the transmitter tower here in U.K. at Croydon - not so famous as the one a few miles away at Crystal Palace, London but probably serves more people through the many signals sent out. Despite being sited on hills, both of these installations are babies compared with this one! Great work between all the guys - I was wondering how much load that derrick rig would take especially has its head block would never reach directly over the antenna - some deft chain block pulling going on. That mounting plate is some piece of kit compared with the tower sections eh?
I had to re-watch the start of the video because I didn't really grasp how that yellow extension was attached and raised. Now I get the idea, but there should have been more video covering how it got up there.
You'll have a climber most likely climb the entire way with a rope and at some point you split the weight like when you climb your partner lifts up the rope beneath him so you're only climbing with 100 feet worth of weight instead of 300 feet
Someone will also climb with a block, which the rope slides through. Then they'll rig cable to the rope, replace the block for the one with the cable and hoist the gin pole up, I don't know the rest as I've not worked with gin poles but getting it up there would be the same as hoisting other objects.
9:12 100% safe just went out the window 🤣🤣🤣 ... There was probably a safety man with binoculars couple miles down the road having a stroke 🤣🤣🤣 ... Be safe man
I did this for 13 years and even though I miss the work life I don't miss the partying life that came with it 😔😔😔... Is that Barry Oliver aka " Uncle Barry " at 7:12 ???
I built a 1200 foot tower in Florida for branch erection it had a 360 platform All sections came from FT WORTH tower. I loved building towers in Florida. 🤠👍
The drone vs. Falcon races held there were really cool. Racing from the top to the ground, I think the Falcons always won those events. Goes to show you, Man will race just about anything that moves against just about anything else that moves. And place wagers on the outcome lol.
I had a tower company come to my house to repair my ham radio antenna that a hurricane twisted. They were only up about 60'. I ask if they had been on any tall towers lately. They said they just came from a 2,000' tower South of Houston.
I stopped watching it for about 5 minutes and then came back, To post this message. Everybody that reads my comment should do this. If you want to know just how dangerous climbing towers really is then do this. Google these words. “ what is the percentage of death pertaining to men that climb towers for a living?” Also this. “About how many men die each year that are TOWER CLIMBERS????”
I have crazy respect for these guys, they are THE Few. Everytime I drive to work, I drive past 3 of these monsters and I often look at the top and think, someone's climbed up there. Insane to me, but to those guys and girls, it's just another day at work. Sidenote: 15:48 you can just see the curvature of the Earth! Amazing. I always hope to see someone working up there when I drive by. How often do crews go up on antennas?
Two concerns (1) still seeing lots of corrosion near and at the joint. Thought they said they were removing it? (2) Those bolts have to have a torque spec. Who is measuring it? Banging on a wrench with a hammer doesn't really torque anything.
Talk about trust in the gear you are using eg the high lift crane its not going to fail and if it does you wont even know about it ,professionals in action and a team that doesn't even on an individual 2 team basis look around and see if their fellow team members are there you just know they are, kudos to crane operator also the first link in the chain job well done , enough said ,hello from Australia....@25:59 we have gone 2 far its time to get some bolts in this ......................
is this yellow structure that lifts the men up there permanent? Or was it fixed to the antenna for the ourpose of this job and will later be removed? At 8:25 I can see the beginning of this structure, but I still can`t figure out wether this is a permanent part of the antenna (for maintenence) or not.
The yellow structure is a gin pole. They are temporary and consist of one or more sections. In this instance, the gin pole is used to secure the antenna in place. General information at wirelessestimator.com/content/industryinfo/317
I think I would rather do the job than watch you all working up there! Seen that clouds rolling in and thought "Time you weren't there!" It's a job you need nice days for! Good to see it though, it is a job that most couldn't do :-))
The direction of the antenna is rotated, this is a mistake at the beginning of the first installation or something else. It would be strange if there was an error in the direction of the antenna and it was corrected later
What was the weight of the part they rotated? This job looked pretty sketchy, but I guess they followed a precise procedure to make it happen :D It was a very well performed teamwork
Question...sSSSSsss... Who are these guys? How did they start out? How can they be so young ( early 20s??) and be so adept at this very precise work? How much do these guys get payed?¿ because it's not enough - And how do you think this shit up??!
I just hope it worked out for the station and put some better OTA signal over the areas where people live and not so much over the Everglades Aligators don't buy much from local advertizers.
