Oh me my goodness, Paul Thurst has a very shocking link on his radio engineering blog about the high rate of cell tower deaths.
http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/
Oh me my goodness, Paul Thurst has a very shocking link on his radio engineering blog about the high rate of cell tower deaths.
http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/
Tower Length
I followed the link and it appears that to view the video I need to buy it so I didn’t see the report.
That leaves me wondering if the deaths were from falls or from electrical causes. If I recall my dated experience gained from teaching at a cell phone base equipment manufacturer correctly the power levels involved are on the order of 250 watts maximum per antenna (the power varies according to need) so the RF is not trivial. I recall seeing some pretty severe arcing when the test loads were disconnected while the power was on in the test cells at the plant. The technicians, though startled, escaped unharmed. But a startled tower climber could react in a way that results in a fall.
Neil
Video Review
That’s not fair that the link tried to pick your pocket. For some reason it played for me, and was Part 1 of a Frontline PBS report. I did not attempt to watch Parts 2 or 3.
In Part 1 the main problem was deadline pressure, forcing sub-contractors to bypass safety routines, which of course are time consuming.
An OSHA rep came across like a bag of grease as he explained how the cell phone companies, the ones who exerted the deadline pressure on Contractors, are not responsible for safety because they are three times removed and never present at the scene of a tower accident.
The contractors are middle-men who try to satisfy the cell phone companies and pass along the deadline pressures to the sub-contractors.
I can only guess that in Parts 2 or 3 the matter of electrical risk is probably covered.
I refuse to have a cell phone and if they kill landline maybe a magicJack plugged into the USB port will work.
I followed the link and it
I followed the link and it appears that to view the video I need to buy it so I didn’t see the report.
Simply hit “play” in the center of the preview screen on Carl’s above link.. the video will play (for free) after the initial commercial