I bet that got your heart pumping! Today had gusts of 30-45 mph winds, so I didn’t make the climb. There was an ol’ veteran working up there and he talked me out of it. I figured I should listen to the man who has many years experience.
This site has a 75-100ft mast on top of a 200ft. grain elevator.
wirelessSolutions wrote: Today had gusts of 30-45 mph winds,
Wow. I was on our 150' freestanding with wind gusts of 20 mph one time. That was enough for me. I can only imagine 30-45. Sounds like aborting was a pretty good idea.
Speaking of wind - you know when you’re driving and you stick your head out the window and you can’t breath? Twice now I’ve been on towers with wind like that. I had to stop, turn my head and put my head in my arms to breath well. It’s definitely an interesting feeling…
Aaron
Well, I didnt drop it, but a month ago when we were having 50mph (or more) straight line winds, i had a BH go down. Upon driving to the tower, i noticed some sort of line laying on the ground, not knowing what it was i got out of the truck, and discovered it was my CAT-5 line laying on the ground! The wind had pulled it out of the RJ-45 connector and snapped every zip tie on the way down. Well, being the idiot that i am, i restrung it (inside the tower this time) and just put my back to the wind so that it would “hold” me on. Wasnt all that bad till the last 10’, which was at about 180’.
Anyway, before i started, a guy had dropped a whole NEMA-4 box from the top, full of cisco radios and a switch, and whatever else, dude at the bottom freaked, luckily he was in the truck although it probably would have went through the roof.
I probably hold one of the records for the highest tower install of Canopy radios. I have a backhaul setup from a TV tower at 1500’ on at 2000’ tower. (these are heights above the ground!!!) I have a 2.4 10Mb BH feeding the tower and a 5.2Ghz AP feeding the customer.
Just for fun, we took a 900AP and put it on the tower at 1500’. We took a 900SM to the TV station remote site 43 miles away and put it on their tower at 250’. We got a LINK!!! This was using the built-in 12.5db antennas.
I am so glad this tower has an elevator, even though it is open on the front!!!
If the wind is over 10 Mph on the ground, we usually don’t go up the tower. I had to fix some equipment for the station one day when the winds were about 15-20 on the ground. The winds on the tower were estimated at over 50mph sustained. My partner and I had to hold on the whole time on the work platform at 1500’ even with TWO safety harness straps on the tower at all times.
As for dropped stuff, I dropped my Samsung phone off the 300’ tower one day, hit the ice bridge at the bottom, and SURVIVED!!! Thought that was cool and I was pretty surprised. 
2 and a half years installing canopy, and i havnt dropped a single thing off a tower…
Only my baseball cap got blown off by the wind…so that doesnt count.
My assistant on the other hand…
- long nose pliers
- phillips screwdriver
- u bolt nut…all in one day at different times (think he had a heavy nite) :lol:
Dropeed a linksys router power supply from 180 ft. just for the hell of it. I have a co worker that goes out to the field with me to help me. I pretty much drop everthing I handle. Not only from towers. Anyways, everytime I drop something he picks it up and tells me “Imagine if you worked in an oil plattaform in the midle of the sea”, and I just answer “If I worked in an oil plataform in the midle of the sea, you would be a diver.” 
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Nope, haven’t dropped anything big, but I have seen something freaky. Ever seen a tower collapse and fall?. I saw a very well fabricated, Andrew 400 ft. tower. Only 5 years old. One of the dead man anchors broke. Yes, I’m talking about about an about 2 in. solid steel bar that broke and off course the guy wires let go and the tower fell in the midle of the night. That was a Saturday around 1:30 am. I get a call that same saturday morning about 5:00. They tell me “the tower fell down”. It wasn’t our tower, but we rented space on it. I was half as sleep so I though he was saying the tower was down. I told him “Well just try rebooting the BH” and he is like “I mean, it fell down to the ground”. That woke me up for good. When I went to see the site it was amazing. Pile of ruble. I called that place “Ground Zero”. To make it even freakier, there was a victim to the tragedy. A little rabit. What are the odds ( is there is a mathematician among us), that a little rabit, living in a 4-5 acre land (at least that is what’s inside the fence) would be in the place where one of the guy wires fell? Because that was the only thing that hit it. Hit it and cut it in two pieces, cleanly. He didn’t even had his eyes close. Freaky!!! at least it was to me. I don’t feel confortable naming the company since they are kind of partners with us, but I can for sure show you the picture of the rabbit. I don’t have were to post it, so if someone wants to I can send it by email and someone else can post it
So if a tower falls in the middle of the night when no one is around does it make a sound? Apparently the bunny didn’t hear…
He may have. There was a several rabbit holes not too far from where we found him. He was inside the tower’s fence. I’m thinking he didn’t find a scape hole soon enough. There are several houses close by. The good thing is that it fell on its own place. Only a 100 ft section tipped over to the side. The rest of it folded as it was falling. Otherwise it would have landed on top of these houses.
There are several houses close by. The good thing is that it fell on its own place. Only a 100 ft section tipped over to the side. The rest of it folded as it was falling. Otherwise it would have landed on top of these houses.
:shock: Wow! That must have freaked out the people in those houses.
My installer Dropped a size 10/11 Open Wrench while adjusting a reflector on a 110ft tower, the area is muddy… no trace… no clue… don’t even have an idea how many inches deeper in the mud it is.