MEMBER & GUEST INTERACTION SECTION > DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
Is this true?
animal:
Thank you ! ... it brought back a few memories .. of college in EE and radio days. Among other things at the time, I was a dj at an AM station after dropping out of college to take care of my sister. When I found out how much they paid for changing the light bulbs on the towers. I was like "I'LL DO IT !!!"
and it turns out they would pay way more under the table in cash if you were willing to do it without powering down .. a leap from the top of the equipment shack to the tower by day, or climbing by night if the station wasn't 24 hours. Proper procedure was to kill power to the tower, ground it and then climb but the money was way better the improper ways, The view is wonderful during the day and amazingly strange at night (in a really good way).
but the FAA and FCC changed regs and bulbs got better so that extra cash dried up :cry:
I would like to do it one more time before kicking off, but I'd do it the right way... getting wimpier as the years go by. :angry:
Ben Framed:
lol doesn't sound wimpy to me!! I have seen pictures of the view from the top of those tall radio towers and I doubt I would have done at the age of 16, even if I had a parachute! lol :wink: :cheesy:
:grin:
animal:
nah, a tower is easy and you can clip off as you go up.... steel is trustworthy.
people that climb trees and poles amaze me. I tried it twice with some 50+ year old climbing spikes.. not good either time as I got up there and both legs fell asleep both times. .. that's an irritating feeling .. and turning your belly into a giant raspberry is not fun either :wink:
(the spikes weren't 50 years old at the time, but they were used and an older style even back then. The spikes part was almost straight and a guy said mine were really more for poles and showed me some with curved spikes that stuck out more .. but I had had enough by then, lol)
animal:
Picture climbing a radio tower at night with the top lights out.
You can see the ground and the tower, but the low angle ... between the line the tower makes, and your sightline up to the top of the tower ... combined with the low light .. makes it where you can't really see that the tower ends.
It's quiet except for the wind and the noises you make yourself. The tower is gently swaying. So .. your mind wanders like you're going for a walk until it settles on Led Zeppelin.
so now, just like 40 or so years ago, "Stairway to Heaven" is stuck in my head. :wink:
kinda nice at first, but I'll probably be cursing you later :cheesy:
It's something I wish everyone could experience, but most wouldn't have it if they could.
Terri Yaki:
Yeah, it's a hard pass for me and I have a bit of respect for those who can do it. I have a friend who worked in coms in the AF and he's told me some stories about building towers and changing those bulbs. He acted like it was nothing but he didn't like the way the bulb was just kind of loose and if he dropped it, he'd have to go all the way back down to get another one. And as for the views. I own and fly a Cessna 172 so I can top any view from a radio or fire tower.
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