Climbing antennas...

[kato]

Got the skillset for this job?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txdv_oNq ... r_embedded

[dustonian]

yeah... it ain't rocket surgery.

[toad857]

skillset? more like "balls"

I heard of a guy that climbed one of the huge towers in Clifton (cinci)... he said when he got to the top, his hands were "hot" and felt like they were melting...

..Guess I'll stick to rocks and trees...

[DriskellHR]

I turned down a job back when I was washing windows full time doing this. But I just did not have big enough balls for somthing like that.

[dustonian]

The pay is pretty good for tower and antenna work.

[kato]

Yeah, I was wondering what the pay was for something like that. I think I would like it better than my cubicle. On the bb where I found the link I was surprised at all the comments where people said they couldn't watch the whole thing. Didn't know fear of heights was so pervasive.

[dustonian]

roughly $30-45/hr for cell tower work and $45-60 for TV rigging 5 years ago. I don't know what radio tower work pays but it's probably about the same and the pay hasn't really gone up in over a decade. I don't know what that guy was saying with the so-called "free climbing" being OSHA approved... very odd. Almost every tower I ever climbed had a fixed steel cable from top to bottom that you protected yourself with a mini-traxion or ASAP-like "cable grab" and shock-absorbing lanyard. I guess they haven't figured out these basic safety techniques in the radio tower world or they were just trying to show off for impressionable youtube viewers? Doesn't really make sense NOT to have one IMO, and generally speaking OSHA is incredibly anal about this kind of thing.

I wouldn't really recommend it as a career change, it's more something you want to get away from in middle age, not go to. Good in that keeps you in shape and healthy, but you've got climbing etc for that, and rigging/rope access is a total deadend mercenary job with no insurance and shit benefits unless you are the 1/1000 guy who is in charge or running your own business... but then you could go completely bankrupt at any time.

[rjackson]

I almost had to turn it off; not from the height factor but from the idea of free climbing, with gloves, helmet camera and 30 pound tool bag dangling below. The only way I was able to watch it was knowing that the video was not labeled "tower worker falls to death after wind shear, rabid hawk and freak tool tether accident."

Seems like a correlation may exist with Alaskan Crab Fishermen and EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) personnel.

[der uber]

I had a tough time watching it too. Seems like a parachute would be a good thing to have.

[TradMike]

I wonder what level of EMF you are exposed to when up on the tower near the transmitter. You'd probably start growing brain tumors.