World's tallest TV antenna

Once upon a time, I was working for a very "low cost" radio station. They did not have a drill. I went to Sears and got the very cheapest drill for my self. I needed to use it on a tower. Made a deal with the boss that if the drill got damaged he would get me a new one. I dropped the drill from about 200 feet up. It hit concrete. Boss was watching. Not helping much. Boss sent me back to Sears to get a new one. On sale they had a better drill for the same price. That drill burned up. Next one some one different dropped it from the tower. By the time that tower was completed I had the very best drill Sears had. (and a box full of tools that did not survive)

AnalogKid said:

and drop the radio on the boss.

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It is hard to hit the target.

Correct me if I'm wrong,
But if you are working on top of the tower, shouldn't the tools be secured somehow?

schmitt trigger said:

shouldn't the tools be secured somehow?

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Yes, the drill extension cord was tied to my belt. The extension cord and drill cord were tied together. A drill pulls hard and can undo the knot and get away. It is also hard to work with rope tied to each tool. A box wrench is hard to use with a string on it. Don't stand under the tower! Every one should be at about the same level.

I tried a rope on each tool. It is hard when your belt is connected to one leg of the tower. You wrench-rope is cough on a different leg. The extension cord is cough on a bold 20 feed down and you can't reach to get unconnected.

tomizett said:

And why the hard had? What could possibly fall on you?

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In vessels we consider it a reasonable precaution when someone starts climbing the same ladder before you. Dirty shoes in 14-m ladders put you in the necessity of waiting for too long or take the risk.

If that's the tower that fell down in the late 90's due to a ice storm I helped cut up the original one and know where much of it is still laying in a rural scrap yard today!

tcmtech said:

ice storm

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Some where I have a picture, small station, ice storm, radio tower down, fell across all the cars in the parking lot.

tcmtech said:

If that's the tower that fell down in the late 90's due to a ice storm I helped cut up the original one and know where much of it is still laying in a rural scrap yard today!

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TMTECH:
I was told that a sister antenna, a few miles away and a few feet shorter, was the one which failed during an ice storm.
Or so I was told.

It could have been. I forget the name of which station it was beyond being about 50 miles outside fargo. ~20 years does that to a person's memory.

schmitt trigger said:

Correct me if I'm wrong,
But if you are working on top of the tower, shouldn't the tools be secured somehow?

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Because that's a really long way to climb back down and pick your spanner up if you drop it...

I should add that I was joking in my previous post (#16) - working at that kind of height is no place to be banging your head, or to have the chap above you drop a tool on you.