Snakes at the transmitter

[nmoore6676]

How about the 'gators & other nasties around the WWL site.

Keep talking like that...the wasps are sounding tamer all the time.

I am just glad that the only wildlife I ever found were of the rodent variety and they had generally sealed their own fate by choosing the wrong warm spot. So I had basically an ick factor to deal with. Live reptiles of any type would have convinced me to chose a safer job in a nice office.

I have encountered a few wasps but usually in outbuildings or that little brown shack that provided much needed relief in rural settings. Yellow jackets who like to re-purpose abandoned rodent holes in grassy areas have made mowing a challenge at times too.

 

[nightfly61]

The Engineers were baffled, the Sports Director couldn't figure it out & the PD thought it was human error: Why wouldn't the Ohio State Football Radio Network feed come through? They thought they had checked everything, & after weeks of phone feeds I went out back on a nice autumn day, looked up at the dish & saw a huge wasp nest right where it wasn't supposed to be. Went inside, got a broom & a can of Raid, & after getting chased like Macaulay Culkin in "My Girl" (only by wasps), the Buckeyes were back on the air. Usually every winter after that after a bad snow storm someone got to do the honors of drudging out through the mud to the dish with that same trusty broom & clean it off. :-\

 

[Bauer 707]

Funny that this subject came up. I have two FMs, KLLC and KFRC-FM on Mt Beacon, above Sausalito in the San Francisco Bay Area. Two weeks ago I was looking for some short BNC jumper cables and was going through a box behind my back-up transmitter. Couldn't find the cables in the box but there was a bag with rags next to it and thinking maybe they fell in there, reached in without looking and grabbed the rag on top. I then looked in the bag and there was a rattlesnake curled up. I leaped back and since I didn't hear any rattling went and kicked the bag a couple of times. No response, so I dragged the bag outside, got my trusty rattlesnake be-heading device, a shovel, and dumped the bag out. The snake was very much alive but it was a really cold day and that is probably why I did not get bit. I almost picked the snake up with the rag. This is the first time I have found a rattler this far back in the building. Usually they are in the front by the bathroom or by the front door.

A couple of years ago I had just killed a three foot rattler that was in the building and was outside the compound burying the head when a hiker walked by me and started heading off into the brush to pick up one of the hiking trails on the hill. I told her to be careful and that I just killed a rattler. She stopped, looked at me and said, "young man I have lived here 20 years and have never seen a rattlesnake. There are no snakes in this area!" I told her I was in the process of burying one and she repeated that there were no snakes and stomped off into the brush. I guess she made it home safely.

Back in 1974 when I was first starting out in radio, I worked at KDFC and the studios were on Mt. Beacon. I never saw rattlers back then but for a couple of years we had tarantulas. It was very disconcerting to be sitting at the board doing my college homework and look down at the floor and see a tarantula crawling towards me. I found that Dow Scrubbing Bubbles would immobilze them and kill them. They thankfully disappeared around 1977 or so.

 

[Kent T]

Around 3 years ago, clubfooted me got fitted with new leg braces. After leaving the orthotist's shop, I got a cellular call to drive to the transmitter near Chattanooga, TN. I arrived to the site and was about to enter the building and I hear this ominous hiss, look down and hear my brace being tapped. I look down and find venom on my shoe and brace. And the sight of Mr. Rattlesnake, a big timber rattler. And then see it strike again and more venom on my shoe and leg brace. I get my Glock out of my pocket and shoot it in the head with .9 Mike Mike rounds. And wonder what in the Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo is going on? I get the rig repaired afterwards and remove the brace and examine it and my leg. If that brace wasn't there, I'd have been in the hospital and likely fitted for a prosthetic leg. Mr. Rattler's 2 fangs only found brace. Here come the Rattlesnakes! And that timber rattler to me was 47 feet long!

 

[necrat123]

Not quite as gory as some of the others here. Out at this formerly, used as a studio but now just a transmitter building, building, it's not uncommon to find all sorts of critters inside. There is this well thing in the back , inside the building, which has about 6" of water in it all the time. There are at least two frogs living inside it. I've seen those frogs more times than I can count. Mice, yep, tons of those. I use glue pads to catch the dumber mice that don't know to avoid them, and they are effective at catching those garter snakes. However two weeks ago when I was out there, I looked down and there were two , not on the glue pad, under neath the AC unit. Still living and sitting there. In the FM tennant room, on the floor, one day I found this black lizard looking thing over by the tower light controller panel. I don't know what it was, but it was dead. I had to work near it to do the quarterly tower light system inspections. Glad it was dead! I've told the FM tennants about the snakes, etc., so they are aware. We also get a lot of birds inside the building, and I don't know where theyre coming in from. They never leave, though. I've had one dead squirrel too in there. All our TV equipment in the building is shut down now, but there is still a full power FM station in there, so the FM guys know about them. For rodent control, I use those green mice baits and glue pads. I don't know what else to call them, other than "mouse cookies". I also make sure I have a number of them near the generator, so the mice eat them and not the stator windings. (It is an outdoor generator in an enclosure)

I will post a picture of the black lizard thing when I get a chance.

 

[jdiamantis]

I was DOE for a small group of stations in D.C. and we were doing a proof for the newly installed 4 tower array that was built prior to my arrival. The site was not quite optimum; 18 miles outside the city, hilly terrain with rocky soil, and tuning houses used routinely as "stands" for hunters.

We were performing the close in measurements, and had hired some part time help to speed up the process. One young man, FIM and clipboard in hand headed out. About an hour later we hear whispering on the handie talkies; something about....a bear?

Next thing the C.E. and I see is this youngster, running full bore up the hill toward the transmitter building...screaming/crying...follwed by a baby bear...followed by mama! The C.E. and I looked at each other, drew our weapons (most unlegal in MD and DC) and waited. Shooting a bear was not something we wanted to do. All of a sudden the C.E. throws his hands in the air and starts yelling at the top of his lungs. Both bears stop, growl a bit, then turn and retreat, much to our relief.

The hired hand had locked himself in the building, and didn't come out for over an hour. Seems there were a couple of issues; he dropped the FIM when he saw the bear and it rolled down the hill into the creek, and he soiled himself front and back and was ashamed to come out. One of the techs from the station came up to the site with a fresh pair of jeans, and the young man finally came out of the building.

Seems he kind of instigated the incident. He saw the baby bear at the tree line and went over to it making kissy sounds. Didn't realize there'd be a mama nearby and when he saw her, well, you know the rest.


jD

 

[av8or]

About 35 years ago I was getting a weather briefing for a small flight I was about to do in Arizona. Many of the stations were not yet automated at that time, thus somebody had to be at the station several times a day to issue the data. One station I needed, outside of Globe, Arizona issued code 'ROPNOT'. I had never seen that before, so I called my local FSDO to ask. It stands for 'Rattlesnake on porch, no observation taken." That code was issued 2 days in a row, and I have not seen it since. As you can imagine, I keep my eyes open for it.