Absolutely correct. (partially)
Safety climbs like Tuf-tug and others are to be used to get to where you
want to be and that's it. You shouldn't even rest on them. You always clip
off somewhere when resting or when you have gotten to your working place.
gorilla hooks (Pelican hooks) we call them will allow you to slide off the
climbing peg. So if we don't have a safety climb, you have to use a lanyard
with a small hook that can't come off the end of the climbing peg. But then
again, hope the climbing peg is seated all the way in! I have went to
step on them before on a monopole, and it came out and down it went! It
wasn't screwed in and the nut wasn't locked down well enough.
>>>>> where CSA/OSHA compliant fall arrest systems are mandatory for
commercial stuff.
Show me where it says this? I have been to comtrain class, and other courses
and have never heard they are 100% required. Just 100% tie off is.
73Dave
n4zkf
-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim Thomson
Sent: Saturday, August 14, 2010 8:46 AM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] Fall Harness-My Choice
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2010 01:44:13 -0700
From: David Gilbert <xdavid@cis-broadband.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Fall Harness-My Choice
My hesitation in buying the safety cable was simply that I didn't want to
trust my life to a spring gripping system I suspected I wouldn't be able to
see (I've never seen one in person so I wasn't certain how enclosed the
mechanism was).
## rohn also has them. There is no spring mechanism if u fall.
The system uses a cam/pall shaped device... that always rides/slides
on the cable. When u try and slide it down the cable, it instantly bites
into it.
## If u ever see a pix of one [ it in the old rohn catalogs] u will see
instantly how it works.
If u see one attached to the bottom of a tower... you can grab it..and it
freely slides UP the cable..
to any where u want. let go.. and it stays put. The cam/pall is an offset
chunk of steel..with the weight towards ur body. The other end/shorter
end... bears on the cable. the thing can only freely slide one way
...UP. The spring mechanism is a hand operated deal.. that temp releases
the cam/pall from the cable,
so u can freely slide it down a bit..when climbing down. If u fell while
climbing down.. and let go of the device.. it instantly grabs the cable
again.
## best thing to do is to see if u can see a pix of one... then u will see
right away that's it
fail safe. You still need ur hooks though. Once u get to top of
tower..or at what ever
level u want to work at.... say 180 deg opposite the safety cable, you
need to h1st hook on
with ur gorrilla hooks,, THEN do a total rld on the safety device... and
detach urself from it.
It detaches from the safety cable... and stays with you. Then you are
free to do whatever.
## when done... u re-attach back to safety cable, undo gorilla hooks...
then proceed up/down the
tower. All our cell sites, micowave sites are rigged with them. If not,
we are not allowed to climb em.
Same deal witrh water tower's etc. At least that's in the real world, where
CSA/OSHA compliant fall arrest systems are mandatory for commercial stuff.
Hams are free to do as they please.
Where problems can occur is when Joe ham decides to employ professional
help/contractor's... and the
1st thing they see is 'No fall arrest system in place'..... then it's
bye-bye. It either gets installed.. or they
won't work on your tower with out it. If it's not in place... they are
not covered by either workman's
compensation.... or if they are killed.. their life insurance may well be
null and void.
## You may want to check ur own health / life insurance plan. Never
thought of this b4.... but if they
knew joe ham owned, and climbed his own tower, that was NOT equipped with a
fall arrest device installed, there could be repercussions after the fact.
## the only time they go up a tower with out a fall arrest system in place
is... when they go to install a new one... either on a new tower
install.... or on an existing ham tower that never had one from day one.
## They are relatively cheap insurance. The cost of the 3/8" winch cable
for a 70' tower is really chump
change. My concern would be getting nailed in the eye by one of those
10" long climbing pegs. They
are usually every 12", alternating sides on the same tower leg. The kicker
is.. there is a 60 deg angle
between the pegs. It's not like climbing a regular peg ladder... nor an
extension ladder. You never
have 2 feet side by side on a peg ladder.. same deal with ur two hands]
One is always up.. and one is
always down.
At least with the gorilla hooks, I can see that they are closed and that
the safety latch has been been locked in place each time.
The gorilla hooks release and open all in the same hand gripping motion, so
it is not appreciably slower than simply climbing or descending.
## agreed... until u pass out, or get nailed in the head from above. Don't
laugh.
One of my buddies at work was on loan to the ant crew for a few months, with
a few new cell tower/ant installs. It was a 240' tower..and he was at the
120' level.
[they were installing heliax onto hangers]. The boss was up at the 240'
level..and
something went wrong..and he dropped one of those heavy chain ratchet
hoists made by Yale and Town..[sorta like a cum-a long on steroids..uses
chain instead of
cable]. My buddy felt something whiz past his left ear, nicking his ear
lobe !
If he had not been leaning over on a bit of an angle.. or was over by 1"
more...
he would have got nailed in the shoulder or head. I believe after that
fiasco,
you could not have personel directly above one another..and both climing
at the same time. One would have to go up/down 1st... until they were at
least
into position. In a lot of cases, step pegs were installed on 2 x
legs..and sometimes
all 3 x legs. ..[with a safety cable on each one] .
## The only mishap I ever had..was dropping a jigsaw, with a metal cutting
blade in it...
for some silly rusted bolts at top of my 1st tower. It was not tied off,
and I dropped it..it fell
75' and hit the garage roof... and bounced 25' sideways back into the
air..and just missed a grnd
worker. Be careful with 120 vac power tools up a tower... esp when it
starts to rain. There is a
100 things that can go wrong up any tower.... like leaving U bolts and
tools resting on rotor/bearing plates... and using em as a shelf... then
forgetting abt em... until the wind /vibration
finally nudges em over the edge. 1/2" bolts can hit the grnd pretty
hard. Then we have the
folks who paint towers orange and white [ repaint em]. They can tell you
some stories.... but
usually wait.... til they are retired. Every Telco/cell co has a 'safety
Sam' whose job it is to investigate
incidents like these...if he hears abt it.
Later... Jim VE7RF
In addition, I can use the two hooks and safety straps to climb around the
tower and suspend myself wherever I might need to work so that both hands
are free. That wouldn't be as workable with the safety cable unless I
brought along extra straps anyway.
73,
Dave AB7E
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