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I take off my hat and bow very deep...
- Thread starter richard.vanderveen
- Start date
I had to quit watching before they got to the top. I was never good on my little 75' ham radio tower. The SWR had to really go off scale to persuade me to go up and check things.
A local AM-FM combo here in the Heartland posted photos of their tower being repainted in July. These guys have to be a special breed.
http://www.tomfmottumwa.com/photos/tower-painting-7-25-10.html
A local AM-FM combo here in the Heartland posted photos of their tower being repainted in July. These guys have to be a special breed.
http://www.tomfmottumwa.com/photos/tower-painting-7-25-10.html
It always makes my hands sweat watching these guys.
Makes me ill just watching the video.
YouTube has pulled the video 
PTBoardOp94 said:YouTube has pulled the video
Yep, they sure did. Too bad. Very educational as to what these guys do to get things to work in incredibly difficult circumstances.
Climbing guyed towers is not that big of a deal. I considered them "extra tall ladders". A gallon of red on one side and a gallon of white on the other...a cardboard box connected to the back of your belt...a white mit...a red mit...and a wire brush and scraper. Climb to the top and work your way down. If you have not done tower work in a while you will be so sore you won't want to get out of bed the next day.
I paid cash for a new car in the 70s with the money I made in a couple of weeks painting towers. You just need an experienced climber to teach you how to do it safely. Always be aware of where your arms and feet are and use the arm-lock technique as you go up and down. The toughest thing for me was learning to trust the rigging enough to let myself dangle when tired so I could relax my muscles.
I would never consider mountain climbing as it looks a lot more unpredictable than structural steel. What scared me was my first trip up to replace the beacon bulb and seeing big chunks taken out of the red lens from target shooters. I did not want to be a target.
Self-supporters are no fun (especially) during a windy day as they are like being on to of a whip antenna. It takes a while to get your sea legs.
I just came off my ham tower this afternoon after reinstalling the re-built tail-twister rotor.
I paid cash for a new car in the 70s with the money I made in a couple of weeks painting towers. You just need an experienced climber to teach you how to do it safely. Always be aware of where your arms and feet are and use the arm-lock technique as you go up and down. The toughest thing for me was learning to trust the rigging enough to let myself dangle when tired so I could relax my muscles.
I would never consider mountain climbing as it looks a lot more unpredictable than structural steel. What scared me was my first trip up to replace the beacon bulb and seeing big chunks taken out of the red lens from target shooters. I did not want to be a target.
Self-supporters are no fun (especially) during a windy day as they are like being on to of a whip antenna. It takes a while to get your sea legs.
I just came off my ham tower this afternoon after reinstalling the re-built tail-twister rotor.
This link works for the moment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uccjrp5NRYE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uccjrp5NRYE
and a few more afterward..
How those guys can do that... I had to stand away from the computer while watching this. Talk about vertigo and acrophobia...
Wow, that video went viral FAST...
It's now the front page story on Yahoo.com
I've also heard that if you fell off the top of a 2,000 foot tower, it would take 10 seconds for you to hit the ground. That's almost enough time to make a phone call. I suppose you might have a heart-attack before you hit the ground though.
It's now the front page story on Yahoo.com
I've also heard that if you fell off the top of a 2,000 foot tower, it would take 10 seconds for you to hit the ground. That's almost enough time to make a phone call. I suppose you might have a heart-attack before you hit the ground though.
Actually I heard a lot of tower climbers were upset about these guys "freeclimbing" which means not being connected to the structure while climbing, and the climber connecting a "pelican hook" onto a foot peg, both of which are frowned on by the industry pro's.
Many of the video's viral re-uploads are pretty lousy on the quality scale. I scowered around for the highest quality (least-transcoded) copy that was still online, and ripped it. If anyone wants a downloadable copy for keeping, here 'tis:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ea5tv0sba5c0ryr
According to this thread over at AVSforum, it's the KRIV/KUHT tower outside Missouri City, TX.
http://www.mediafire.com/?ea5tv0sba5c0ryr
According to this thread over at AVSforum, it's the KRIV/KUHT tower outside Missouri City, TX.
Thank you, thank you, thank you ;D
You guys are fast...nice for the video archive. It would be fun to take an FT-817 up there to the top to play with when the work is done.
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