Back when I had my TV repair business at Lake of the Ozarks a lot of the work was putting up towers and antenna systems. The closest broadcast stations were about 70-80 miles away and people down on the lake needed antennas high in the air to get good reception. I put up towers and had to climb a lot of them to repair or replace old antennas.
I had to use a fireman's style safety belt in my work. The belt was a thick leather belt with a large steel hook hanging down. While climbing that heavy steel hook had a tendency to swing about and sometimes would swing and slap me in my man parts. I just winced as I wrote that line because it was painful when that happened. Putting up a tower meant that every new 10 foot section had to be pulled up on a rope, so by the end of a day I was pretty tired after climbing up, then down and back up with another section of tower. There were times in the dead of winter, with windy conditions made for an uncomfortable job. I carried a pint of whiskey in the glove box of the van just to warm me up a little before and after the job. The heater in the van was not very good, so I was cold by the time I got to the job. That was the only time I drank whiskey then or now.
One job I remember well was at a motel right by the Grand Glaize bridge in Camden county. There was a cliff there perhaps 40 feet high and the tower was mounted just 3-5 feet back from the edge. The tower was 50 feet high. The antenna was a huge Winegard about 8 feet long and it had a pre-amplifier installed right at the down lead of the antenna. The antenna was fine, but the pre-amp had quit working. So up I went to replace it. I got up there, attached my fireman's hook and had to lean out horizontally from my waist with my arms stretched to the limit to reach the pre-amp. I looked down for a half minute and wondered if something happened and I fell, would I snap my bones on the edge of the cliff or miss that and hit the water 90 feet below, doing a reverse belly flop? Either way I was fairly sure it would be life's end for me. It hardly seemed worth it for a few bucks work.
Copyright Bill Weber 2006-2019 and beyond.
I had to use a fireman's style safety belt in my work. The belt was a thick leather belt with a large steel hook hanging down. While climbing that heavy steel hook had a tendency to swing about and sometimes would swing and slap me in my man parts. I just winced as I wrote that line because it was painful when that happened. Putting up a tower meant that every new 10 foot section had to be pulled up on a rope, so by the end of a day I was pretty tired after climbing up, then down and back up with another section of tower. There were times in the dead of winter, with windy conditions made for an uncomfortable job. I carried a pint of whiskey in the glove box of the van just to warm me up a little before and after the job. The heater in the van was not very good, so I was cold by the time I got to the job. That was the only time I drank whiskey then or now.
One job I remember well was at a motel right by the Grand Glaize bridge in Camden county. There was a cliff there perhaps 40 feet high and the tower was mounted just 3-5 feet back from the edge. The tower was 50 feet high. The antenna was a huge Winegard about 8 feet long and it had a pre-amplifier installed right at the down lead of the antenna. The antenna was fine, but the pre-amp had quit working. So up I went to replace it. I got up there, attached my fireman's hook and had to lean out horizontally from my waist with my arms stretched to the limit to reach the pre-amp. I looked down for a half minute and wondered if something happened and I fell, would I snap my bones on the edge of the cliff or miss that and hit the water 90 feet below, doing a reverse belly flop? Either way I was fairly sure it would be life's end for me. It hardly seemed worth it for a few bucks work.
Copyright Bill Weber 2006-2019 and beyond.
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