Field Horror stories?

[hal_9000]

any field guys out there have wireless related horror stories?

I'll start with my most recent one..
Last Friday I was up on a 140' cell phone type tower (strictly wifi in this case) I climbed up in a break in a rain storm. I had to go op to remove 2 antennas from a 4 way split setup because we were losing too many DBs to splitting.. so I climbed up with a 2 way splitter and coax seal.. When I got to the top I started unwrapping one of the N connectors in preparation to disconnect it, when all of a sudden the wind started to blow and the tower started to sway.. this wasn't concerning me all that much, for doing what I do I have gotten used to slowly twisting in the wind.. I didn't start to get concerned till it started to hail on me REALLY HARD.. so bad that the scenery went away.. So I am holding my hand over the N connector to keep it dry.. this went on for 1/2 hour... and then the very distinct, Loud and Clear rumble of nearby thunder.. I immediately got on the phone to my boss and told him in no uncertain terms that I was going to climb off this f***ing tower right now and I don't give a rats a$$ that I haven't completed the job.. just about that time the sky cleared, the sun came out and I was able to resplit the antennas.. well it was a success.. people who were in the -90s in signal jumped up to -78 and got full 11TX/11RX (yea we use B) and I was able to climb down without dying...

That is just my most recient horror story.. I have many many others, lots to do with water tanks,towers,falling objects (including a canopy dish from 100' up into a parking lot full of cars), breaking ladders, sliding ladders, real freaking long ladders, ladder-automobile-separation on the interstate. etc..

I want to hear yours!

Jamie

[WHT]

140' tower

Noob :lol:

[UBNT-Mike.Ford]

140' tower

Noob :lol:

Man I cant even imagine scaling a 140' tower

lol

Mike

[ahooper]

One of our sites is on top of a 40m tower http://www.borg.net.nz/gallery/tokoroa/IM002931?full=1
At the top of the mast there is a paltform made of wood and to be honest im prety sure that its is untreated as you can push your finger thru it prety easily. So care had to be taken not to stand on the wood.

I had a similar experance to you, it started of with some prety impressive wind that started blowing in, then some rain that as prety much hotizontal. I managed to get the bolts on the mounting done up and all the connections sealed up.

Then came some real gusty stuff. tather than risk heading back down and being blown off I decided to ride things out until the wind subsded a little.

Then came the lightning. Needless to say it was about then that i made the reality check and decided that i would rather risk heading down the ladder than stay up there and get fried.

[WHT]

TWICE while stacking a 500 footer, we got hit by lightning. It was umm...an energizing experience. My hard hat looked like it was sprayed with a fine mist of metallic paint.

On another exciting day, I was half way up a 1,000 foot tower and lighting shot down the wire cable load line in the center of the tower. I was inside the tower backed up against the legs and a one foot fireball followed the line to the ground. Right between my legs.

Earth tremors on a tower...feel like a horse hitting the guy wire and a bull rubbing up against it.

Tornadoes - the don't remain stationary. If you don't see it moving, its going away from you or directly towards you. It was coming towards us.

St. Elmos fire looks like inch long pieces of glowing pink and purple yarn that you can push around with your finger at the top of the tower.

[imodel]

I hope guys are getting paid well. Sounds nuts.

[mswfox]

I hope guys are getting paid well. Sounds nuts.

You said it! I know I'm bringing this thread back from the dead, but this is crazy. Makes my boring "answer the phones tech support" job sound even more, well, boring than it already is.

[WHT]

Forgot to mention the pilotless RF-4 Phantom jet that almost hit me on a 700 ft. tower.

It was on a landing approach and had right engine a fire alarm, so they shut the engine down...but the shut down the left engine. Now with no running engines, they ejected, the the right engine was still carrying power and the jet made a full circle and came back towards me while sitting on the top of a 700 ft. tower. It flew past me and crashed about a mile south next to a freeway.

[gmeden]

100ft...300ft...1000ft...makes no difference after 30ft...lol
I don't climb if there's a cloud within 20 miles..don't want to discover the first strike!...no warning...just instant darkness...be careful out there!

[WHT]

Our T-shirts say,

If you fall from 200 feet, add another 6 feet.

[WHT]

This is what I teach...err, PREACH

* OSHA says a fall from 15 feet is 50% fatal.
* Does that mean the other 50% of the time you walk away?
* No...it means you may spend the rest of your live in bed with a
feeding tube stuck down your throat and two more tubes stuck somewhere else.

BTW...I heard last night that an employee of a big box store fell from a ten foot ladder flat on his face...killed him instantly. Most likely bone cartilage was jammed up into his brain.

[UBNT-Mike.Ford]

Crazy.

Mike

[BurnDeluxe]

It is really awful

[WHT]

Yeah...but the view from 2,100 after a long climb is awesome!

I was up on a 1,600 south of Dallas (that in Texas if you're from Rio Linda) and the whole county was covered in fog, but I could see the tall buildings of downtown Dallas ten miles away...sticking up through the fog like fairy castles in a grey sea.

[WHT]

Dallas (that in Texas if you're from Rio Linda)

I recall reading several years ago that like 30% of inner city school children in New York City could locate Dallas on a map, or knew where it was...something like that.

[garymansperger]

No one gets hurt falling.

It is hitting the ground that hurts.

[WHT]

This isn't a WISP horror story, but its still been a bad day for me....

I ran my truck off a three foot concrete embankment last night in the fog, trying to herd some cattle out of the front yard so they wouldn't make a mess in the front lawn full of gopher holes that I tripped over and twisted my ankle as we had to replace all the under house duct work that some critters ripped apart that caused the heat to quit in the house and a water piper froze and split open...

We lifted the truck up with our front end loader and its fine...

[simz10]

dangerous job.... don't be careless...