I have watched the US Coast Guard civil engineers routinely 'hot jump' an
1,800' Loran C tower fed by several million watts of pulsed power.
It took them quite some time to reach the top. On their way up, they would
swing, held only by a lanyard, from one side of the tower to the others
while inspecting the structure.
They were young and healthy, with a lot more guts than I have; it was scary
just to watch them :) they sure knew their job. Great chaps.
73, Carl VE9OV
----- Original Message -----
From: "Patrick Barthelow" <apolloeme@live.com>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2009 1:31 AM
Subject: [TowerTalk] RF RadHaz safety
Relative to the pictures of KGO AM 810 TX antennas, referenced in an
earlier post, Some (all) of us who visited KGO, very much respected
the danger of touching the bare copper feed conductors going
to the base of each tower that were in easy hand reach.
Especially while squishing through the saturated saltwater
marshy mush of the ground at the 1/4 wave tower bases. A discussion
ensued among the hams, of whether any nasties would happen if you had to
do maintenance on the tower, while hot @ 50KW if you could safely jump
the ground to the insulated (hot) base of the tower. Or even if not safe in
the OSHA/FCC RAD HAZ sense, would you would likely receive an
RF burn of any kind by hopping onto the tower never connecting to the
ground and the tower at the same time?
Some say, you would feel nothing,
others thought there could be significant charging current at 50 KW that
you probably would get a painful, possibly dangerous ZAP, on contact,
even if not touching ground...
Picture collection of KGO:
http://www.dxhound.com/KGO%20visit%202005/jj_test_KGO.htm xxxx
Best Regards, 73,
Pat Barthelow apolloeme@live.com
Executive Producer
"Echoes of Apollo"
A celebration of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing 40th Anniversary,
and exhibit of world wide Moon Bounce, EME Communications
"On Wings of Eagles":
http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/news_events/apollo11/
http://www.jamesburgdish.org
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