Oh, hell no!

Just no. No!

[Those with advanced acrophobia, don't even click!]

Man, oh man, oh man!

I was really dying to see what could possibly be so important that somebody would have to do something like this, but they didn't show us. What do you suppose they were going to do up there?

Bear, I can see those coding skills really coming in handy. What if the antenna runs on Javascript? Somebody needs to go up there and patch it up once in a while...

I believe they were changing the light bulb.

That's insane. I wonder if they would allow something like that over here. I really don't know.

I wonder what the experience is like. I've done indoor climbing for a while (you know, with the coloured nubs), and every now and then we'd have to climb on top of the ceiling to hang up the lines. This was done by a ladder at the side of the hall. I *absolutely* hated it, having to climb a tall ladder like that without any safety lines. But maybe the relatively small height (compared to the transmission tower anyway) made it extra scary, because you get a good sense of the height. Maybe I would be less scared of climbing the tower, because you can't actually see where you're going to land when things go wrong.

Not sure if this is the same one I saw about a year ago. Does he say at some point they are allowed to 'free climb' - i.e. climb without a tether?

My wife has a friend who works on cell towers, and according to him, that is 100% not true. OSHA requires a tether at all times. According to our friend, the video never shows the face of the partner, because he would get in serious trouble if they found out he was not using one.

and I'm with Bear - Hell to the No!

I used to work in a theatre. To focus the lights, we had to go up on an A-frame ladder that looks like this, except ours was about 20' tall to the point. The extension then goes straight up another 15'. you climb to the top of the A, raise the extension up, then climb the top of it. You swing your leg over the top bar, straddling it. That leaves both hand free to work.

When you are up focusing light, and the pipes start swinging, your brain tells you YOU are moving, so you lean to compensate, which then causes your ears to yell at your brain "HEY DUMBASS!!! YOU'RE DOIN' IT WRONG". You can get very dizzy very fast up there.

I don't miss it.

Yeah, sounds like the same video. The guy's face is blurred and he does make that statement about being allowed to not use a tether.

WHy don't they just lay the tower down to change the light bulb, then pull it back up!

If they have an elevator up, why can't they instead put the whole tower on a lift, and lower it into the ground?

You can't lay it down because you'd need to own a swath of land 30'(?) wide by 2000' long, which gets a little cost prohibitive.

Whoosh

Really scary..

I think those cell phone companies either need to buy some robots which do this job or shift their technology to optical fiber or to satellites.

Jagadeeswara Yaramala wrote:... or shift their technology to optical fiber...

you are suggesting my cell phone should have a fiber-optic cable attached to it?

you are suggesting my cell phone should have a fiber-optic cable attached to it?

No...!! My thinking is that if there are fiber-optic connected networks, the cell-phone towers need not be of *that* height. One can easily use current existing electrical power poles or something of manageable height.

Haven't you guys done sky diving or bungee jumping?

When I was in the military we had a number of sayings about paratroopers (sky divers):

Why would anyone jump out of a perfectly good ariplane?

and

Two things fall out of the sky: fools and bird poop.

... that may be just conventional wisdom. i.e. I don't agree to that. This type of things fall under the category "You have to do it to understand why someone would do it". For me, it is like being adventurous but not to be foolish (by taking all safety measurements).

To each. I look forward to your video of you climbing a 300 meter tower without a safety line.

Bear Bibeault wrote:To each. I look forward to your video of you climbing a 300 meter tower without a safety line.

I have done sky diving. I can't post pictures/videos as I don't want to make them publically accessible.

[redacted]

Actually, the video is of another tower, nearly twice as high as the Sutro tower!

Oh, yikes! The fact that they showed the Sutro Tower first fooled me.

Now I'll have to find out exactly what tower they climbed.

Just wow!

I'm not going to watch that video. I get that flinching feeling just by reading this thread.

Paul Clapham wrote:I'm not going to watch that video. I get that flinching feeling just by reading this thread.

I don't blame you. I'm not acrophobic at all, and had to pause with a queasy stomach a number of times throughout the video.

A friend, who is highly acrophobic, would likely have nightmares for weeks if he watched it.

Bear Bibeault wrote:

Paul Clapham wrote:I'm not going to watch that video. I get that flinching feeling just by reading this thread.

I don't blame you. I'm not acrophobic at all, and had to pause with a queasy stomach a number of times throughout the video.

A friend, who is highly acrophobic, would likely have nightmares for weeks if he watched it.

It doesn't look THAT bad. However my wife did have to leave the room while I was playing it.

That part of the tower between the first set of ladders and where he starts climbing climbing without the safety line seems particularly treacherous.

I wonder how much extra weight a parachute would be.

Ryan McGuire wrote:It doesn't look THAT bad.

Yes. Yes, it does!

And to an acrophobe, it'd be horrific!

Bear Bibeault wrote:Oh, yikes! The fact that they showed the Sutro Tower first fooled me.

Now I'll have to find out exactly what tower they climbed.

If I've done the math correctly, a human body reaches terminal velocity (an appropriate choice of terminology) after falling 1600-1800 feet. So the difference between the Sutro Tower and this antenna tower is significant. However, once you've managed to climb this antenna tower, climbing one that's twice as tall won't make much of a difference to the survival probability. If fact, the additional height might give you more time to assume a less aerodynamic orientation and thus INcrease your chance of survival.

(Anyone breathing heavily and sweating after reading that?)